As the white stellaria accompanied us from London to Manchester, so the blue campanula took us up there, and has travelled with us to Dumfries. Not that the stellaria had deserted us, or that the campanula was not in the hedges all the way from London, but that each plant was only conspicuous when in flower. Between Liverpool and Lancaster the flowers of the common ragwort began to make their appearance, and have since become more conspicuous by hedge sides and in pasture fields, than it would be for the credit of the Cumberland and Dumfriesshire farmers to mention. Between High Hesketh and Wetherall the dwarf whin abounds, and is coming into flower, with masses of purple heath, the above yellow ragwort, purple foxglove, and, in the hedges, as high as their tops, Galium uliginosum. The ash and a broad-leaved elm seem to be indigenous alike in Dove Dale on the lime, about Alton Towers on the sand, and among the lakes on the clay. The same may be said of the oak, the hazel, the thorn, the holly, and the yew. The holly was formerly so abundant about the lakes, that birdlime was made from it in large quantities, and shipped to the East Indies for destroying insects. It is still equally abundant in what remains of Needwood Forest, on the sand, in Staffordshire. We merely mention these things to show that the larger indigenous vegetables are not very exclusive in their choice of soils, whatever they may be with regard to elevation of surface, moisture, or temperature. Grasses we believe to be much more particular as to soil; but ferns and other Cryptogamia seem to be guided in their choice entirely by moisture and climate.
