30 
BRISTOL BOTANY, I9IO. 
either in descriptive works or in those on local botany. Among- 
the books to which I have been able to refer, the Floras of Berks 
and Middlesex alone mention them as being- “ not uncommon.” 
It is stated by French and German authors that suhglahrum occurs 
here and there throughout the more northern and mountainous 
regions, and doubtless it is the same at home, with intermediates 
connecting the extreme forms that have been named. It does 
not appear that soils can influence these plants. At Failand the 
shaggiest and the most glabrescent grow side by side on the 
same stream. 
Several years ago I had an opportunity of examining a collection 
of plants made by a former resident in the Cheddar Valley, and 
noticed among them a specimen of the Great Spearwort ( JRanun- 
ciilus Lingua) labelled “Churchill, 1852.” This was the only 
intimation that had ever reached us of the presence of this rare 
plant in that broad tract of North Somerset which lies between 
Clevedon and the peat moors, about 18 miles across. It was not 
even known that any suitable swamp or marsh existed in the vicinity 
of Churchill. Repeated visits to the parish were made in hope of a 
re-discovery, and on the third excursion, last July, I was pleased to 
find in some low-lying pasture to the N.W. of the village a large 
pool where the golden-yellow blossoms of the Spearwort shewed 
abundantly'above a mass of Menyanthes. Such an incident serves 
to emphasize a fact which hardly needs support, that every 
portion of even the most unpromising ground in a district should 
be visited before the publication of a local Flora can be satisfactorily 
attempted. There are some plants which offer problems for enquiry 
in the broken or interrupted nature of their distribution. Among 
local species no more remarkable instances of this discontinuity 
could be selected than those of the Buckbean and Gr eat Spearwort, 
whose localities in this district are separated by intervals extended 
often to a width of many miles. A number of connecting links 
must have been destroyed from time to time by enclosure and 
drainage of poor lands, resulting in a gradual disappearance of the 
swamps and morasses which alone form congenial homes for these 
paludal species. 
It was not anticipated that the most important discovery of the 
year would be reserved for the last days of the season, but so it 
happened, and thus a large share of the interest of this sketch 
attaches to its closing paragraphs. At the end of September I 
learnt that Mr. Henry Corder, of Bridgwater, had rediscovered, 
near Catcott, Cladium Marisciis^ which, although known to Sole 
upon the peat moors 120 years ago had eluded observation ever 
since. The news was a surprise, for it was not thought possible 
that the grand Fen Sedge could have survived the malign influence 
of a century’s drainage and persistent turf-cutting. The moors as 
we now see them must have worn a very different aspect when 
the old Bath botanist rambled over the heaths of Catcott and 
