The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Jeremy Bentham and James Mill
• Rationale of Judicial Evidence
• Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
• Botanical Writings 1840–61
• Calendar of Odours April 1840
• Rare Plants In West Surrey June 1841
• Isatis Tinctoria June 1841
• Notes On Plants Growing In the Neighbourhood of Guildford, Surrey August 1841
• Cnicus Forsteri September 1841
• Additional Guildford Stations September 1841
• Polygonum Dumetorum November 1841
• Rarer Plants of the Isle of Wight November 1841
• Corrections and Additions In Mr. Mill’s List of Plants In the Isle of Wight January 1842
• The Phytologist; a Botanical Magazine December 1843
• Notes On the Species of Oenanthe February 1845
• Correction of an Error In the “notes On the Species of Oenanthe” April 1845
• Observations On Isatis Tinctoria and Other Plants May 1856
• Plants Growing Wild In the District of Luxford’s Reigate Florajune 1856
• Note On West Surrey Plants July 1856
• Reigate Plants October 1856
• Plants Growing On and Near Blackheath April 1857
• Late (early?) Flowering Plants: Plants In Flower In the District of Eltham and Chiselhurst, In November, 1857 January 1858
• Hutchinsia Petraea May 1858
• Leucojum Aestivum July 1858
• Clifton Plants July 1858
• Plants On Sherborn Sands, Blackheath, and Other Stations September 1858
• Some Derbyshire Plants September 1858
• Linaria Purpurea September 1858
• Faversham Plants October 1858
• Lepidium Ruderale April 1859
• Wallflower Growing On the Living Rock May 1860
• Spring Flowers of the South of Europe: Remarks On Some of the Spring Flowers of the South of Europe, and On Their Representatives In the British Isles October 1860
• Botany of Spain. a Few Days’ Botanizing In the North-eastern Provinces of Spain, In April and May, 1860 August 1861-february 1862
• Verbascum Thapsiforme October 1862
• Medical Reviews 1834, 1842
• Dr. King’s Lecture On the Study of Anatomy November 1834
• Carpenter’s Physiology January 1842
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Wills and Deed of Gift 1853-72
• Appendix B: the Vixen, and Circassia April 1837
• Appendix C: The Spanish Question July 1837
• Appendix D: Questions Before the Select Committee On Metropolitan Local Government 1867
• Appendix E: Mill At the Political Economy Club 1840-65
• Appendix F: Textual Emendations
• Appendix G: Index of Persons, and Works Cited, With Variants and Notes

Notes on Plants Growing in the Neighbourhood of Guildford, Surrey

AUGUST 1841

impatiens fulva. At whatever period introduced, this plant is now so thoroughly naturalized, that it would be pedantry any longer to refuse it that place in the English Flora, which has been accorded on less strong grounds to many plants originally introduced from abroad. For many miles by the side of the Wey, both above and below Guildford, it is as abundant as the commonest river-side plants, the Lythrum Salicaria or Epilobium hirsutum; and my friend Mr. Henry Cole¹ informs me that it is found in various places by the same river all the way to its junction with the Thames. It is equally abundant on the banks of the Tillingbourne, that beautiful tributary of the Wey; especially at Chilworth, where it grows in boundless profusion: and near Albury, where I saw it for the first time in 1822. The plant stated by Sir J.E. Smith to be growing near Guildford,² under the name of Impatiens Noli-me-tangere, is doubtless no other than this plant. The Noli-metangere, which I have seen growing about Windermere, in the Pyrenees, and in Switzerland, is very distinct from this.

Geranium lucidum; in most of the lanes about Guildford.

Fumaria capreolata; near Losely, and by the roadside between Guildford and Merrow.

Fumaria parviflora; in corn-fields on the summit and southern declivity of the Hog’s Back; and in lanes at its foot.

Valerianella dentata (or Fedia dentata); corn-fields on the chalk hills on both sides of Guildford, abundantly.

Isatis tinctoria; in great perfection in the chalk-pits close to the town, on the Shalford road; as noticed in The Phytologist, p. 30.³

Hippuris vulgaris; in one of the ponds in Clandon Park.

Bupleurum rotundifolium. This plant grew, last summer, in a corn-field on the brow of the hill by the path leading from Guildford to Martha’s Chapel. The field having been sown this summer with a green crop, which was removed early, the plant cannot now be found.

Campanula hybrida; abundant in the lower part of the same field.

Corydalis claviculata. This plant formerly grew close to Martha’s Chapel, but I have sought for it this year in vain.

Dipsacus pilosus; most abundant near Chilworth, especially in the hanging wood.

Androsaemum officinale; near Albury, but sparingly.

Saponaria officinalis; near Shere.

Stellaria glauca. This interesting and elegant plant grows in marshy meadows by the river Wey, near the foot of St. Catherine’s Hill.

Menyanthes trifoliata; now (whatever may formerly have been the case) a rare plant in Surrey. It grows on Gomshall Common, in the vale of Albury; where I also once found a double variety of Cardamine pratensis.

Papaver hybridum; in corn-fields between Guildford and Martha’s Chapel. Papaver dubium is as common in the neighbourhood as P. Rhoeas.

Lepidium sativum; naturalized by the side of the Wey.

Nasturtium sylvestre and Barbarea praecox: not unfrequent by the side of the Wey.

Rhamnus catharticus and Frangula; the former not unfrequent on the downs, the latter abundant in a wood near Compton.

Orobanche major; at Martha’s Chapel.

Listera Nidus-avis; in a heathy wood between Guildford and Martha’s Chapel. With this exception I have not been able to find near Guildford any of the less common Orchideae so numerous near Dorking.

Salvia verbenaca. St. Catherine’s Hill; Merrow Church-yard; and various other places.

Cistopteris fragilis and Asplenium Ruta-muraria. These ferns grow in considerable abundance on a wall by the road-side at Albury, where I first found them in 1824, and again this summer.

Marchantia polymorpha; on the perpendicular face of the cutting on the road to Godalming, at the foot of St. Catherine’s Hill. Geranium lucidum grows on an old wall on the opposite side of the road.

[1 ]Henry Cole (1808-82) was a close friend of Mill’s, especially in the late 1820s and early 1830s, when they went on walking tours together, during which Mill initiated Cole into the pleasures of field botany.

[2 ]This statement by James Edward Smith (1759-1828) has not been located; he gives only northern locations for Impatiens noli-me-tangere in his English Flora, 4 vols. (London: Longman, et al., 1824-29).

[3 ]See “Isatis Tinctoria,” p. 258 above.