62 
NOTES ON BRISTOL PLANTS. 
ground ” was covered with flowers and brambles, and no decent person 
dare walk upon it after dark 1 Specimens from the Hill are extant, 
gathered from 60 to 70 years ago; but probably the plant had 
disappeared before Swete’s time, for he makes no mention of it in the 
Flora Bristoliensis. I understand that when the site of the Blind 
Asylum was excavated an enormous mass of earth, etc., was tipped on 
to the upper part of Brandon Hill, and with that material the present 
broad walk was constructed. It seems likely enough that the Moenchia- 
was thus buried. No other locality for this species was known in the 
County of Gloucestershire until last May, when Mr. Cedric Bucknall 
found it on Yate Common. He reports it to be fairly plentiful 
on bare sandy soil. 
Carex elata All. [C. stricta Good.) It is pleasant to note that this 
very rare sedge is present with us in larger quantity than was at first 
estimated. Still, it is confined solely to one spot. And Carex vesicaria 
remains safe on its river-bank, although in peril last autumn from the 
spade of the ditcher. ^ 
The construction and traffic of our Dock extensions, with the 
accompanying railways, granaries, and corn-mills, that deal with 
imported grain, continue to be answerable for the introduction of many 
alien species. These may have no connection with the primitive 
vegetation of the district ; yet, as they will be always with us so long 
as our cereals and fodder are largely sea-borne, they must be taken into 
account by the student of plant distribution. A number of them are 
unable to ripen seed and so gain permanence, but in consequence of 
frequent re-introduction they maintain themselves in our flora. Thus 
we now find 3 marly specimens, few or many, of such rarities as 
Ado7iis, Roeineria^ Sisymbrium Sophia^ Trifolium resupinatum, 
Caucalis daucoides, C. latifolia^ Carum Carvi, Asperula arvehsis^ and 
the two species of Apera^ with a quantity of foreigners whose names do 
not appear in the “ London Catalogue of British Plants.” Some of the 
latter travel here from countries so remote and so little known, 
botanically, that expert botanists in our National Herbaria fail to 
recognise them. 
I have lately learnt that Dillenius, first Sherardian Professor of Botany 
in Oxford (1734), left the following note among his MS. — Pulsatilla 
vulgaris^ fore majors . . . semina habui inter Bathoniara et 
Bristoliam lecta, e quibus haec species in Plorto Oxoniense crevit.’’^ 
Should any reader be able to throw the least light on this reported 
occurrence of the Basque flower in our district I shall be very glad to 
have the information. 
^ From The Dillsnian Herbaria by Bruce and Vines. Oxford, 1907. 
