124 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
islands of Great Britain and Ireland, but I have seen it as far
South as the Midi of France in Europe. It is one of the
Cruciferae Order, has creeping roots which send up sprouts, and
has taken to the chalk soil of Kent with the greatest success, so
far as its own increasing and multiplying is concerned. It is
greatly disliked by the farmers down there accordingly. Perhaps
the information about the plant may be interesting to some of
your readers, and possibly may be useful to the agriculturist, so
that he may destroy it wherever he may see it. Extirpation is
now probably impossible. One good point about it, as an
intruder, is—and perhaps the only one—that it is not poisonous
—none of the Cruciferae are—but that is a small consolation.
Mr. Haig, in answer to an enquiry from us, adds:—
'The authority for my statement as to Lepidium draba is the late Dr.
Masters, F.R.S.. Editor for many years of the Gardeners' Chronicle, who was
an uncle of my late wife. He gave in the Gardeners' Chronicle, nearly a
quarter of a century ago, the particulars of the introduction of the plant into
England,'
In Babington's Manual, L. draba is indicated as 'established
in many places, but not naturalized.' In Gibson's Flora of
Essex, published in 1862, several localities are given—near
Bartlow, Woodham Mortimer, Rochford, North Fambridge, and
Salcot, in cornfields: 'supposed to be an escape from cul-
tivation.'
Mr. Edwin E. Turner, of Coggeshall, writes:—
'Lepidium draba was sent to me some twenty or more years ago, from
Battlesbridge, Rettendon, by an agricultural labourer, asking for a name, with
the remark that it was very troublesome to get rid of. This last assertion is
certainly true, as Mr. E. A. Fitch, of Maldon, has found to his cost. I believe it
came to his farm in clover-seed, and has since spread to fields adjoining by its
numerous seeds getting washed down the ditches in flood time. The roots
penetrated to the deepest drains, some three feet below the surface, and are
almost as tough as wire. Mr. Fitch tried to exterminate the plant by employing
a number of women hand-picking, but I believe he was worsted in the struggle.
. . . The first appearance in my district was in the year 1894, since which
time, I have seen it in various localities—in a field near Cressing Road, Witham ;
by the roadside near Threshelford's Farm, Feering; Maldon and neighbour-
hood ; also in Mersea.'
Our member, Mr. C. Nicholson, who is studying the alien
flora of Essex, says that L. draba is now to be found nearly all
over our county. Dunn, in his Alien Flora of Britain, says that
it was apparently introduced into Britain in the early part of
last century. It affords an interesting example of the appearance