Mimuli, and Martagon lilies, which are registered as growing for a season on some lonely rubbish-heap. That a great many plants lately introduced into this country are fairly in the way of becoming "naturalized," cannot be doubted; but it is well to keep them in a provisional list till they have proved their qualifications for permanent residence in their adopted country.

Amongst the doubtful natives there is one for which I wish some botanist would speak a good word-the chesnut; perhaps some day it will be found in that old and little-explored herbarium the tertiary strata, although Mr. Bowerbank has failed to pickle any from Sheppy; and meanwhile it might be inquired whether any of our ancient. structures, like the roof of Westminster Hall, were built of home-grown chesnut, or whether it is only the sessile-flowered oak timber, as Mr. Cooper suggested.

Those who live in the country, especially in the eastern counties, will witness, not without regret, a change going on in the distribution of our wild plants, which threatens to be as complete as any change related by the geologist. Every year the habitats for the more interesting plants, those which have small power of multiplying or migrating, become fewer, and half a century hence botanists will doubt whether the Pyrola, Vacciniums, Andromeda, Convallaria multiflora, Oreopteris, Lycopodia selago and clavatum, &c., ever grew in Norfolk. In their place we shall have a number from amongst that kind of plants which in the 'London Catalogue' are said to be "imperfectly naturalized."

July, 1848.

S. P. WOODWard.

Note on the Loose and sometimes Incorrect manner in which the Time of the Flowering of Plants is given in our Manuals of British Botany. By C. DREW SNOOKE, Esq.

I Do not know whether in the pages of the 'Phytologist' attention has been at all directed to the loose and sometimes incorrect manner in which the time of plants' flowering is given in our Manuals of British Botany. A greater degree of exactitude in this respect seems highly desirable, and would, I presume, be easily attainable, if those botanists who, like myself, are but tyros in the science, were to have their attention directed to this subject as one within the compass of

their abilities, and were to carry on for a few years a series of observations on the beginning and ending of the time of flowering of all those plants that may be situated conveniently for observation in the locality of each observer. In each year an observation should be recorded of the earliest day the plant was observed to flower, and the latest day on which it was seen in blossom, and after some years a comparison of these observations would give an average day for a commencing and terminating date, which might be inserted in our botanical manuals thus, May 12-July 5; instead of the vague "June and July," &c., as at present.

It is likely, however, that a considerable difference in the flowering time of the same plant would be observed in distant parts of Britain; in some plants more than in others.

A few days ago, June 20, I walked a distance of eleven miles and back to obtain a specimen of buckbean (Menyanthes trofoliata), and was much disappointed on reaching the spot at being unable to find a single flower; there were some flowering stems with fruit in various stages of maturity. Yet in Hooker's British Flora' and other works this plant is stated to flower in June and July.

I trouble you with these remarks in the hope that you or some equally competent person may be induced to bring the subject before the readers of the 'Phytologist.'

Newport, Isle of Wight,
July 3, 1848.

C. D. SNOOKE.

[Our correspondent will find observations on the same subject in various numbers of the 'Phytologist.' We think it one of far greater interest than our leading botanical writers, i. e., Hooker and Babington, seem to consider it. In neither the British Flora' nor 'Manual' do we find evidence of care or of personal observation in the records of the time of flowering: it is our individual opinion that care and personal observation are needful in every branch of the science; and we have frequently wished the dates of flowering in these two works wholly expunged, or, what would be perhaps still better, introduced here and there from the actual observations of the writer. Why should not the dates be given with a view to positive utility, instead of being introduced like the numbers preceding the specific name as a mere matter of form?-ED.]

1

Notes and occasional Observations on some of the Rarer British Plants growing wild in Hampshire. By Wм. ARNOLD BROMFIELD, M.D., F.L.S., &c.

IN presenting the readers of the 'Phytologist' with the following list of Hampshire plants, my object has been to promote our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the species in Britain, which important branch of philosophical Botany is now, through the impulse happily given it by the labours of Mr. H. C. Watson, beginning to receive its due share of attention in this country. The time is gone by when such catalogues are to be viewed and their utility measured by their fitness as vehicles for the communication of mere rarities to the collector. For this reason it is that so many of the plants now enumerated are such as must be called common in Hants and the adjacent counties, but as restricted in their general range over the kingdom, the epithet is to be understood in the same limited sense.

An early communication of this catalogue having been requested by the editor, it is offered in a less complete state than I could have wished. Some habitats are omitted for want of time to look over the lists and notices I have been favoured with from numerous correspondents, whose kind and zealous co-operation I shall have the pleasing duty of gratefully acknowledging in another place. These omissions, with I hope some new accessions to our county Flora, I trust to supply when the last part of these notes goes to press. Many of the older stations recorded in Turner and Dillwyn's 'Botanist's Guide' are copied from the 'Hampshire Repository,' and are generally attributed to Dr. Pulteney. I have taken them from the original and now very scarce volumes, for the perusal of which I am indebted to the kindness of a friend in Ryde. When the locality for a plant is not followed by the name of an observer, the occurrence of the species therein rests on my own authority, as having been personally seen there; in all other cases the name of the first discoverer or recorder is subjoined, either followed or not by one, two, or three notes of admiration. When no such interjectional sign is placed after a name, the station and species are taken on the sole credit of the observer. A single (!) implies that a dried specimen has been seen from the alleged habitat; two such marks indicate the receipt of a fresh or living example; and three, the verification by myself of both plant and station. Plants certainly introduced are marked (‡); those doubtfully indigenous with a (†), as being the signs usually employed for this purpose.

VOL. III.

2 F

Clematis Vitalba.

Most abundantly throughout the county, and the Isle of Wight, wherever the soil contains any notable proportion of calcareous earth; our thick tufted hedgerows often seeming as if weighed down by the oppressive luxuriance of this very ornamental climber.

Thalictrum flavum. Apparently rare.

Oram's Harbour, Winton;

Mr. W. Whale! Near Southampton and at Shawford; Miss G. E. Kilderbee. Hill Head; Mr. W. L. Notcutt. Twyford water meadows; Dr. A. D. White. Near Wickham and Droxford; Pulteney, in Hamp. Rep. Extremely rare in the Isle of Wight.

Myosurus minimus. Corn-fields and waste ground. Near Bishop's Waltham, and probably not rare on the mainland of Hants. Very common, and in some years most abundant, in the Isle of Wight. Adonis autumnalis. Corn-fields. Matterley Farm; Dr. Pulteney, in Hamp. Rep. Wonston and Bullington; Rev. D. Cockelton. several parts of the Isle of Wight, but rare.

In

Ranunculus Lingua. Sowley Pond; Mr. R. Jefferd. In several places in the Isle of Wight, but not general. Water meadows between Lord Rodney's Park and Bishop's Sutton, plentifully; Mr. H. C. Watson.

hirsutus. By the baths at Lymington; observed on a late visit to this my native town, and during an unsuccessful search for the long-lost Scirpus parvulus. Isle of Wight, but not common. parviflorus. About Lymington and Southton, in various places. Andover; Mr. W. Whale. Very frequent in the Isle of Wight.

arvensis.

Common in the county.

Much too abundant in the Isle of Wight in the corn-fields of our slovenly farmers. + Helleborus viridis. At Langrish, near Petersfield; Miss G. E. Kilderbee!!! but I am not quite satisfied that it is truly wild there. Wood at Tigwell, near West Meon; Miss E. Sibley!! I have heard of other stations, either for this or the following species, in the neighbourhood of Petersfield, but am not yet sufficiently informed on the subject to communicate them here.

foetidus. Truly wild but not common in our vast beech woods, called in the county "hangers ";* where it occupies the steep sloping sides of the chalk hills, as I have seen H. niger do those of the Apennine and Austrian Alps. Selborne, as noticed by White.

* In this word the g is pronounced as if belonging to the second syllable, han-ger, not to the first, as in its more commonly known meaning.

Aquilegia vulgaris. Woods and copses, also in furze brakes in places innumerable in the county. Truly wild in upland situations; rarer and perhaps generally naturalized in the lower more enclosed country. Bordean. Near Hambledon; Dr. Pulteney, in Hamp. Rep. Sinkhorn's Coppice, Otterbourne; Miss A. Yonge. Near Fordingbridge; Miss May. About West Meon, with white, red, and blue flowers; Miss E. Sibley. Hockley; Miss L. Legge. Wherwell Wood, near Andover; Mr. Whale. In various parts of the Isle of Wight; truly indigenous.

+? Delphinium Consolida. Corn-fields occasionally, but rare. Near Andover; Mr. W. Whale. Very rare in the Isle of Wight, and probably brought in with seed corn.

Aconitum Napellus. Naturalized in wet ground in a few places both in the county and Isle of Wight; but certainly this alpine plant is nowhere native in Hampshire. Near Warnford; Rev. E. M. Sladen. +? Berberis vulgaris. Pinglestone Down, near Old Alresford; Mr. J. Forder! but not having yet seen the station, I cannot say whether this shrub is indigenous there or not. Very rare in the Isle of Wight, and I think certainly not wild in its only locality, a field hedge near Thorley.

Nymphea alba. Not, I believe, rare on the mainland of the county, though with the following unknown to the Isle of Wight in a wild state. Abundant with Isnardia palustris in a pool just out of Brockenhurst towards Lyndhurst. Ditches near the Grange Farm at Gomer Pond, Gosport. Near Titchfield and Romsey; Dr. Pulteney, in Hamp. Rep. Newbury Common, near Hurstbourne; Miss Hadfield! Cultivated for ornament in the Isle of Wight.

Nuphar lutea. Pool at Embley, near Romsey, 1844. Boarhunt Mill; Dr. Pulteney, in Hamp. Rep. Unknown in the Isle of Wight, though I have no reason to suppose it rare in the county generally. Glaucium luteum. Common on the Hampshire coasts, on both sides of the Solent.

Chelidonium majus. I mention this plant because though common in most parts of England, as well as on the main land of Hants, it is decidedly the reverse in the Isle of Wight, where, if it cannot be called exactly rare, it is at least extremely local.

Papaver hybridum. Frequent and sometimes abundant in the Isle of Wight, and probably on the mainland of Hants. All the other species, excepting P. somniferum, are common weeds throughout the county. The latter comes up copiously at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, wherever the ground is disturbed for building, with single, full or