BRISTOL BOTANY, I9IO. 
23 
Gloucestershire than in North Somerset. Like some other plants 
of the same natural order, Wild Spinach has been widely culti- 
vated as a pot-herb, and has not long- disappeared from gardens. 
Its use seems to have been practically universal throughout 
Europe. In the mountain valleys of France, Switzerland, and 
Austria, it occurs nearly everywhere by waysides and dwellings, 
following man’s steps to the highest elevations. On this same 
Hawkesbury steep there is an ancient quarry, from whence stone 
for the Somerset Monument that stands above may have been 
taken ; and in it, among a wild tangle of undergrowth, are large 
patches of a North American Aster ( A. Novi-Belgii), evidently of 
many years standing, and now firmly established. 
Two miles or so to the northward Hillsley lies under the same 
range, at the mouth of the charming little Kilcott valley, which, 
unluckily, is out of bounds, for the botanizing there is excellent. 
A large pasture on the west of this hamlet contains the Martagon 
Lily in most unusual quantity. Early in the year, when first seen 
by Mr. Bucknall, he considered there were quite 200 plants. 
Later, when we went to get it in flower, nearly the whole had 
been mown or spudded, only a few stems on the brink of a 
sunken lane had escaped destruction. No vestige of a garden 
could be detected at the spot, nor do any suspicious flowers 
accompany the Lily. As a rule L. Martagon occurs in woods 
and copses which are often of undoubted age, and, in this 
instance, it may be assumed that, if not native, the plant is a 
denizen of like antiquity. 
Crossing an intervening stretch of better land we come to the 
poor clay of Inglestone Common, where Cammock ( Ononis spinosa) 
flourishes in profusion ; and to the Wickwar woodland, chiefly 
noteworthy for an abundance of Butterfly Orchis and sweet-scented 
Gymnadenia, with a fair sprinkling of the Service Tree ( Pyrus 
torrninalis J, and betony and saw-wort everywhere along the grassy 
rides. South-west of Wickwar the country takes on a rather 
different character. An extensive tract of unproductive soil upon 
the coal measures, now cultivated, but not long enclosed — “ robbed 
from the poor in 1811,” said a cottager to me — and in fact com- 
prising Engine Common, Yate ‘Lower Common, with sundry 
deserted collieries, stretches as far south as the Frome at Stover, 
and becomes coterminous with the wide expanse of Yate Common. 
Notwithstanding that much has been done to destroy its wilder 
aspect, this district contains some excellent plant localities, fur- 
nishing good species that make it especially attractive. Among 
them have been noted Viola canina van lanceolata^ Lepiditim 
heterophyllum^ Trifolium medium^ Rubus imbricatus in abundance, 
Epilobiiim parviflorimi var. rivulare^ Achillea Ptarmica^ Erigeron 
acre^ Bidefis tripartita^ Senecio eriicifolius^ Carduus pratensis^ 
Populus tremula and Chara fragilis var. delicatula ; the last a new 
plant for the county. But by far the most interesting spot here- 
