THE FLORA OF THE RAILWAY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I read with great pleasure in a recent number of your paper an account of the interesting flowers that may be seen on railway banks and cuttings, and I could mention many plants of rare occurrence that I have noted in the course of a journey, and longed to be able to investigate at closer quarters. But I write to endorse all that your contributor said as to the curious way in which Senecio squalidus seems to be spreading along our railways. I found it fully established last year on Epsom Downs along the railway from Tattenbam Corner towards Purley, and I saw it there again last June. It must have been brought with ballast for the line. In this town Linaria =paa is growing plentifully on the ballast heaps by the railway station, though it is not native here, and occurs, I believe, no nearer, than Plymouth, where it is found on similar ground.—I am, Sir, &c., J. N. H. SMITH-PEABSE.
Launceston, Cornwall.
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