Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/197

 SHOUT NOTES AND QUERIES. 175

stances, it will be best for the piesent to withhold from the TricJio- maues an unqualified admission into the flora of Cornwall. There is, however, undoubted evidence of its existence in England at a time pre- vious to the introduction of the popular taste for Fern culture. In the first volume of this Journal (p. 238), attention was drawn by Mr. T. Moore to Dr. Richardson's specimens from Bingley, Yorkshire, in the British Museum ; and in the Banksian herbarium there is another speci- men from "Belbank, Yorkshire" (the same locality), collected by Hud- son. These Yorkshire plants are but an inch or two high. There are also in the Museum very luxuriant specimens from Carnarvonshire, col- lected in 18G3 by Mr. Backhouse. In this locality, however, there is reason to suspect an intentional introduction, as is also the case in the parallel habitats in Westmoreland and Arran, recorded in this Journal, Vol. I. pp. 238 and 293, and Argyle, given in Watson's 'Compendium,' p. 604. The county of "Derbyshire" is mentioned in ' Nature' (vol. iii. p. 333) as formerly producing this rare Pern, but I suspect some error in this. Still, there is sufficient probability of coming upon Trichomanes in a wild state in England to render worth while a special search in suitable localities. — Heney Trimen.

��Flora Vectensis. — In continuation of my remarks (Vol. VIII. p. 384), I may state that the Sloane MS. 591, ascribed to Dr. John Pratt, (cf. p. 15 of the present volume,) gives localities for Samphire, Fucns inarinus, male and female Mercury, agreeing with those given in Vol. VIII. p. 159. I find no mention of Isle of Wight plants in Blackstone, 'Spe- cimen Botanicura ' (174(j), nor do I come across any record in Dr. W. G. Maton's 'Scenery of the Western Counties of Enoland ' (1797), nor in J. Hassell's 'Tour of the Isle of Wight' (1790). There is a like silence in W. Gilpin's ' Observations on the Western Parts of England, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, to which are added a few Remarks on the Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight' (1798). Richard Warner, in his 'Collections for the History of Hampshire,' etc. (in six vols., 1795), gives the Ryde hal)itat for Mt^rciirialis mas et faeinina (vol. iii. p. 32), on the authority of the ' Magna Britannia,' and JShrcnrialis annua (vol. iii. p. 34), from Gough's 'Camden.' I come now to the ' Rural Economy of the Southern Counties, comprising. . . the Isle of Wight,' etc., by W. Marshall (1798). This author writes (vol. ii. p. 254), " Out of the face of the cliit" (near St. Catherine's) shrubs and herbaceous plants are seen in great abundance, and to the eye glancing over them the species appear numerous." Then, on p. 280, he remarks, "The most extraordi- nary circumstance which arose in examining the crops of the Isle of Wight is, that not an acre, nor even a plant of Sainfoin, met the eye ! Even on the whole extent of calcareous lands that I traversed! I do not mean to assert that there is no one instance of Sainfoin being grown in the island ; but, from the inquiries made, I learnt that there was, in 1791, very little, if any, then growing 1 And the reason given for this neglect of it was, tiiat ' it soon goes off;' an extraordinary circumstance (seeing the nature of the soil), which is only to be explained in the calcareous lands of this island having been re|)eatedly cro])ped with this valu.ible plant, or by some impropriety in the management of the growing crop." (Compare Mr. A. G. More on this plant, p. 140.) On p. 287, we find "The Turnip crop is shamefully inanaged in this island ; not one acre often

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