176 
NATURE NOTES. 
bats, red herrings, and old boots. A careful perusal of the leading article leaves no 
doubt that the glowing periods which have just been quoted, must have been 
written in grim irony. The editor of the Richmond and Twickenham Times, 
one of the most vigorous and versatile Selbornians known to us, must have far too 
much knowledge of nature, and far too much familiarity with the valley of the 
Thames, not to know that all the statements made in the paragraph quoted above 
are very curiously the reverse of what is actually the case. But the sarcasm, 
though severe, is not sufficiently obvious, and lest some of the Richmond Sel- 
bornians may be led into the belief that the writer is in earnest, it well be neces- 
sary to say a few words with regard to the actual contents of this much vaunted 
collection. The grandiloquent account mentions just eight plants ; the mention 
of Hypericum gives us no clue as to what is meant, as there are about a dozen 
British species of the genus. Of these eight plants the first, Petasites fragrans, 
is not a British plant at all, but a native of southern Italy, introduced into Eng- 
land during the present century ; it frequently escapes from the gardens in which 
it is planted, and probably has been confused by the managers of this wild 
garden with Petasites vulgaris, an undoubted British plant which grows on the 
river side close to Kew Gardens. The next three plants, Linaria vulgaris , 
Cichorium Intybus, and Epilobium angustifolium, although native plants, are by 
no means characteristic of the river side. L. vulgaris, a rank growing weed in 
garden ground, is a denizen of dust heaps and dry banks ; C. Intybus, of road 
sides, and other waste places ; E. angustifolium is generally found in open woods. 
The top of Box Hill, wdiere it is found in Surrey, is a much more likely locality 
for it than the river bank. Of course these plants, as well as many hundred others, 
are to be found in the wide limit of the Thames “ basin,” but they are by no 
means typical of the flora of the Thames, or indeed of any other river whatever. 
The plant which does grow in profusion along the banks of the Thames is E. 
hirsutum ; possibly that is the plant which has been placed in the Terrace Gar- 
dens. The youngest Selbornian could distinguish in a moment its regular petals 
from the irregular ones of the E. angustifolium. We have left then just four 
genuine British riverside plants ; let us see how far the account given of them is 
trustworthy, and how far they are illustrative of the richness and variety of the 
Thames Valley Flora. Perhaps it will not be necessary to go beyond the first ; 
we are told that Bidens tripartita is “ a rare plant ” ; but the Borough Botanist 
was fortunate enough to secure a specimen last year, and having carefully sown 
the seed of his prize was able to produce the plant in all its glory at the Terrace 
Gardens this year. Now what are the actual facts of the case? B. tripartita 
is a very common plant ; very common in the Thames Valley, it may be found in 
almost every part of Middlesex ; very common in England ; very common in 
Europe ; per omne territorium, says Nymanun, in his Sylloge : it is to be found 
over a great part of Asia, in Africa, and in America — a pretty wide distribution 
this for a rare plant. It is indeed a common and ugly weed, one of the most 
dirty-Iooking and unattractive of the British flora, and likely to become a noxious 
pest when introduced into cultivated ground. 
Space will not allow us to dwell upon the remaining three riverside plants, 
Symphytum officinale, Lythrum Salicaria, and Spiraa Ulmaria, save to state 
that they are all extremely common plants ; instead of being in any way charac- 
teristic of the Thames, there is probably not a single county in England in which 
they may not be found growing by the brook sides and in moist ditches. 
How varied and interesting the Flora of the Thames banks actually is, when 
surveyed by a competent observer, may be ascertained in the work by Mr. 
Nicholson mentioned above, in which he gives many scores of plants growing in 
the little strip of river-side ground from the Brentford Ferry to the beginning of 
the Old Deer Park. This boasted Richmond Garden gives us, for the whole 
length of the river, four very common plants, which are about as illustrative 
of the banks of the Thames as a sod of way-side turf containing docks and 
dandelions, nettles and plantains would be illustrative of the Flora of the 
British Isles. And this is what the Editor of the R. and T. T. tells us is a pleasure 
to all lovers of Natural Science, calculated to open our eyes to the variety and 
beauty, &c., most useful to botanical students, a joy for ever to Selbornians, 11 a 
good work done in the interests of natural science ! ” Truly, Mr. Editor, the satire 
is too severe. The conjoined councils and committees may have posed as patrons 
