llote on a ^einarkblc (ffolong of ^Iron iplanfs. 
By JAS. W. white. 
HERE is a spot in the parish of Kingswood, Gloucestershire, 
J- about four miles north-east of Bristol, which deserves 
mention on account of the extensive collection of alien plants 
known to have existed there for some years. 
It is a small heap of shaly debris (about 50 yards by 25) on 
tlie slope of a hill, and surrounded by corn fields. This heap 
may have been the result of an old trial-boring for coal, but at 
present there is no pit or working in the near vicinity, and 
enquiries show that the place has remained undisturbed for 
about twenty years. Last summer a friend and I made several 
visits to the heap, and gathered on it the plants whose names 
are appended. 
As a rule, the occurrence of foreign or alien plants in this 
country is not to be considered of any scientific importance. 
There are very many means by which such stragglers can be 
introduced : with corn and other agricultural seeds, with foreign 
fodder, or in the refuse from oil and flour mills, distilleries, and 
paper mills using imported material. Dock-sides and waste 
places about quays, where ship rubbish is thrown, ballast heaps, 
and the collected refuse of gardeners and farmers, are all situa- 
tions where we may expect to find interlopers from far-off lands. 
Some of these have become so well-established, and have spread 
