151 
Eoyal Garden of Blois.® Paul Boccone’s Drawings and 
Descriptions of the rarer plants of Sicily, Malta, i^ance, 
and Italy. * Bay’s History of Plants, page 746. Monnier’s 
Observations made on Natural History in the Southern 
Provinces of Prance, in the year 1739, page 131. 
Lastly he brings forward a passage from Caspar Bauhin’s 
work, published at Basle, in Switzerland, in the year 1674, 
in which it is described as “A draba with a blue flower, 
having a vaulted corolla.” 
Hudson concludes his account thus, — 
In English stinging. Habitat in mountainous meadows. 
Above Shute hill, between Axminster and Honiton. Mr. 
Newbery.”t 
Thus it appears that the flower was mentioned before the 
time of Kay, and by Kay himself as being found wild near 
Blois, in Prance, or as it is otherwise described, in the flelds 
of Sologne. Indeed, in Morison’s work, it is said to grow 
there “ in all directions in moist heath-fields and old woods, 
and also in other parts of Prance towards Poitiers.” J ‘‘ The 
whole plant ” he remarked, ‘‘is very hot, especially its root ; 
when chewed, it pricks and stings the tongue. It is wrongly 
called by Caspar Bauhin, a Draba with a blue vaulted flower, 
for it has no similarity to a Draba, the species of which 
have a pouch or silicule.” § 
As Hudson first described it as an English plant in 1778, 
and quotes as his authority Mr. Newbery, it is probable 
that Mr. Newbery discovered it between 1762 and 1778. 
At this time Mr. Newbery lived at Heathstock, in the 
parish of Stockland, and as he was a noted herbalist, and 
had the reputation of knowing every plant of the neigh- 
bourhood, was likely to notice the flower when journeying 
to Axminster. Polwhele says, |1 “ The late Mr. Newbery 
* For an account of Paul Boccone, Caspar Bauliin, and Monnier, see p. 121 & 122, 
t Mr. Newbery’s Christian name was William. D. before Newbery in the Latin 
text stands for Dominus, Mr. 
X “ Towards Poitiers” is taken from Morison’s other work, Hist. Plant. Univers. 
where he gives a similar account of the Lobelia. 
§ Tota planta percalida est, praecipue ejus radix ; masticata linguam urendo pun- 
git. Crescit in humidis ericetis, passim inagro Soloniensi alibique in Gallia, Male 
a Casparo Bauh. in pin. pag, 110, collucatur pro draba flore cseruleo galateo, quum 
nihil habet affinitatis cum siliquosa draba, cujus draba est species. 
Hortus Eegius Blesensis, Auctus, 
Auctore Bob. Morison. 
Londini, 1669, 
11 History of Devon. I. 81 n, a.d. 1797. a Ibid, p, 93. 
