352 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 12, 1892. 
are planted for profit more than for ornammt, and the fiower 
sellers are far more likely to asseit that what they sell is the 
produce of their own grounds than that it was gathered wild, as 
they think they may so ask a higher price. 
The first Narcissus on the list is the Hoop Petticoat, and the 
pale yellow variety of it called N. bulbocodium var, citrinura is the 
only form of the species ever found in France. Indeed no other 
is found in Europe outside the limits of the Spanish peninsula. Its 
range in France is pretty well marked, being bounded by the course 
of the Garonne from its source close to Spain to its mouth at 
Bordeaux. The Hoop Petticoat occurs at intervals throughout this 
district, reachingat least asfareast asBagneres de Bigorre,and having 
been found by Mr. George Maw not far from Arcachon, a few miles 
south of Bordeaux. Near Bayonne I found it only on the west side 
of the Nive, but about Biarritz it abounds. Some dealers have 
divided the variety into greater and lesser, but there is no such 
natural division, large and small flowers being found intermixed, 
though the average size is larger where the ground is favourable 
for their growth. They delight in a s'^eep hillside, where the ground 
has some tendency to be boggy, but they do not grow in the wettest 
spots, preferring the sounder ground amongst the scrub of Heather 
and Gorse, which pro ects their roots. I found them plentifully in 
flower in one sheltered spot before the end of January, and they 
were not over when I came away at the end of March. The flowers 
are gathered by thousands for the market, and the bulbs are dug 
up to send to England : one nurserymen at Biarritz told me he had 
sent 40,000 here last summer. I noticed in so many instances that 
I am sure it cannot be accidental, that they prefer the northern and 
north-western slopes of the hills. I hardly ever saw one on the 
eastern or southern sides, however favourable for them the soil 
might appear to be. In England we fancy that all this class like roast¬ 
ing in summer, but in their native haunts they seem to avoid it. 
Next comes the very large and variable species N. pseudo- 
Narcissus, of which I will to-day speak of only one variety, the 
common large double Daffodil of Eng'ish gardens, where it is 
known as var. Telamouius plenus. This is to be seen everywhere, 
in the cultivated plots and in the neighbourhood of detached 
farms or old chateaux, and I am told that it is the only variety of 
Daffodil which has been long thus grown in France. In fact it 
seems to be wild in that part of France just on the same terms and 
in the same way as it is wild in England. It probably has no 
claim to be indigenous in either country. There is no large single 
flowered kind common in any part of the neighbourhood of 
Bayonne to which its origin can be asdgned. The most plausible 
theory about this large double Drffvidil is that it came from 
northern Italy, in parts of which, especially in the meadows of 
the Tuscan rivers, it is found growing wild in company with the 
common large sing'e Daffodil of the country. It has so robust a 
constitution that wherever accident or the hand of man once brings 
it, there it becomes established. I have seen it in more than one 
spot in the meadows and islands of the Adour, above Bayonne ; 
but it does not seem anywhere to ascend into the mountains. 
Its size and bright colour make it a favourite with the French, and 
large bunches appear in the markets and the streets from the end 
of January onwards. The local botanical catalogues call it N. major 
var. obesus. The origin of this name appears to be Godron’s 
“ French Flora,” 1848. What I have to say about other varieties of 
psendo-Narcissus I will defer till another day.—0. Woi.ley Dod, 
Edge Hall, Malpas. 
(To be continued.) 
HALF AN HOUR AMONG OUR BRITISH PLANTS. 
[A. paper read by Mr. W. W. Pettiorew before a meeting of the Cardiff Gardeners’ 
Mutual Improvement Society.] 
Singularly enough very few gardeners try to make themselves 
acquainted with native wild plant=. In tact, as a rule, they aie rather 
apt to speak contemptuously of them, designating them all as weeds. 
For my part I think this a very great mistake, as every gardener should 
know at least some of the most important British plants, and also have 
some knowledge of the principles of cla'isification. 
The flora of what we call the British Isles has not always been of 
the character it is to-day, for in ages long pass d away—as some 
compute it 300,000 years ago—it could hold its own in point of beauty 
and luxuriance with that of any other part of the globe. This country 
was then covered with great forests of Tree Ferns, Giant Mosses, 
Lycopods, Liverworts, and Equiseta, for vegetable life lad not then 
assumed the beautiful forms with which we are now acquainted. As 
ages rolled on changes took place which slowly but surely altered 
and modified the forms of plant life. Great earthquakes swallowed up 
many miles of forest, and altered the whole face of the globe. They 
seem to have been very prevalent during the infancy of tne earth, and 
it is mainly to them that we are indebted for the coal fields which supply 
us with so many comforts. 
Another change gradually took place, w'hich played a very potent 
part in altering the character of the flora, not merely of this country. 
Out of all Europe and the northern hemisphere. The change I allude to 
is what is generally called the glacial period, or the age of ice. This 
came on very gradually, thus enabling plants to fly before the pursuing 
ice to a place of safety. Land whicn was once covered by tropical 
forests gradually became the habitat of Alpines, Arctic Mosses, and 
finally the home of perennial ice. The ice age, unfortunately, 
annihilated whole genera of plants m Europe, which escaped in North 
America, for the mountain ranges of the latter country run north and 
south, thus enabling the plants to travel before the ice without inter¬ 
ruption, whereas in Europe the mountains run east and west, thereby 
blocking the retreat of the plants, which soon perished from the extreme 
cold. The ice age is believed to have lastel tor nearly 160,000 years, at 
the end of which time the ice had receded to the Arctic circle, and 
plants which had escaped to more congenial climes began once more to 
occupy their former abode. 
The present flora of the British Isles consists of ninety-four natural 
orders and 1832 species (Hooker). C.)mparatively small as tnis flora is, 
it is made up of no less than fivequite distinct groups of plants. The first 
of these is called the Germanic, to which the greater bulk of our wild 
plants belong. They have been derived, as the name indicafes, from 
Germany and the North of Europe. The second, the Celtic Iberian, a 
rather small section of the British Flora, is confined to the South of 
England, South Wales, and the South-West of Ireland. It has its 
headquarters in the South-West of Europe, whence it has found its way 
to the parts of these islands which I have just mentionrd. The third 
group, to which all our British Alpines be'oug, and even many of the 
low ground plants of the North of Scotland, is called the Scandinavian 
or Boreal group. Three North American plan’s, found only on the 
West Coast of Ireland, the Hebrides, and the Island of Skve, form the 
fourth group. The fifth and last group is the Endemic Flora, or the 
plants peculiar to the British Isles—a very small group indeed. 
The fact that our flora has be n derived from the Continent—both 
north and south—indicates that our island has at onetime been joined to 
Scandinavia, Germany, and France, as the facts I have just mentioned 
can scarcely be explained m any other way. We have other, and perhaps 
scronger proofs of this in the form of submerged foicsts existing in 
the German Ocean, which must at one time have occupied dry land, 
and the shallowness of the North Sea and ihe English Cnaimel is proof 
enough that water has not always occupiei that portion of the globe. 
Having given ihis short history of the flora of these Isles, I will now 
mention a tew of its members. As time is limited and the subject a 
very wide one I must of necessity be rather arbitrary in my choice. 
The tw'o plants which I shall first speak about are Ranunculus acris and 
R. bulbosus. These both belong to ihe Germanic flora, and are perhaps 
the most common of all our wild plants, making the meadows bright 
and gay during the early summer months with their heads of golden 
yellow flowers. The natural order to which they belong is Ranunculaceffi, 
a fairly large order made up of thirty different genera. The genus 
Ranunculus is distinguished from the other twenty-nine genera by 
having a small honey pore at the base of each pe'.wl, aa arrangement 
which is not found in any other genus of Ranunculacese. To the c.asual 
observer the two spec’Cs present no maiked differences whatever, and 
would at once be classed as the common Butiercup. As a matter 
of fact there are several very important differences between them. 
R. acris has a round peduncle without any furrows in it, spreading 
sepals, and a straight rootstock, while R. bulbesus has a furrowed 
peduncle, deflected sepals, and a swollen rootstock. Beggars have been 
known to blister their arms and body with the leaves and stems of 
R. acris to arouse pity and thereby carry on their profession with the 
greater success. 
The next plant I wish to mention is Chelidonium majus, belonging 
to the Natural Order Papaveraceas. It is a vey common | lant in many 
parts of the country, and there is nothing specially inteiesting about it, 
but its simple beamy and striking foliage make ic a good plant for the 
wild garden. Viola canina and V. tricolor are two very interesting and 
distinct plants. The former is commonly called the Dog Violet, the 
laifer the Heartsease or Pansy. The Dog Vio'et has a procumbent stem, 
very small stipules, and has its upper petals inclining outwaids. It also 
bears what are termed dimorphic flowers—that is, two different forms. 
The one is the showy form, usually seen on the plant duiing the spring 
and early summer, and does not beir seed. The other is a very insig¬ 
nificant flower, generally without petals, and haidly distinguishable 
from the foliage. This flower is produced during the autumn, and is 
usually fertile. Viola tricolor is, as I have already said, quite distinct 
from V. canina, as it has large stipules, eiect petals, and omy one form 
of flower. The Viola is so cjnstructed that it can only be fertilised by 
the aid of a very sma 1 insect, such as a thrips. To attract these insects 
two stamens are told off into the spur of the lowest petal, and are there 
transformed into honey knobs, which secrete a sweet fluid when the 
flower is fully developed. 
The natural order Onagrariete. to which the Fuchsia belongs, is only 
represented by three genera in the British Ishs The largest of these 
is Bpilobium. B. an^ustifolium is the showiest of all the British 
species. It grows plentifully beside streams, ditches, and railway 
embankments, and, wherever growing, the long racemes of bright 
purplish flowers make it a very conspicuous object. The name Eosebay, 
or French Willow, is often given to it. Cirema alpina, the 
“ Enchanter’s Nightshade,” belongs to the same natural oider. Although 
it has not the large striking flowers of the last mentioned plant, it has 
very pleasing foliage, and bears a pretty raceme of minute white flowers. 
