Page:A Short Account of the Botany of Poole.djvu/7

Rh acres in the south east of Dorsetshire. We have, however, in abundance in one situation, what has not been found in Scotland, viz. the Erica ciliaris, Lin. In a locality of the kind already mentioned in the Isle of Purbeck, which I visited last August, accompanied by my friend, Dr. Macreight, I enjoyed the no ordinary gratification of viewing this rarest and most beautiful of the English heaths to great advantage. Throughout nearly the whole space from Arne to Corfe Castle, a distance of fully four miles, we found it in profusion. Heath was the prevailing vegetation throughout the whole extent, and this the dominant species. Growing in its native bogs it is certainly not inferior to a Menziesia of which it has much the general habit. It is taller and more shrubby than the other British species of Erica.

Many parts of the more superficial bogs are adorned with the splendid flowers of Gentiana pneumonanthe, Lin., as well as with the three Droseræ and Anagallis tenella, Lin., all of which, together with Pinguicula lusitanica, Lin., Exacum filiforme, Sm., and both varieties of Scirpus Savii, Spreng., may be esteemed common plants in our bogs.

The residue of the plastic clay district is, it must be owned, that barren heath land which gives the prevailing feature to the district within about six miles around Poole. The Agrostis setacca, Curt., is the only grass which will flourish on this soil during the dry season, but this is so abundant as to constitute, with its rigid and shining panicles, a striking feature in our heaths.

Beyond this barren portion, extending in every direction towards the chalk, before arriving at it, the soil is a rich loam, and extremely fertile. The surface in these situations is also beautifully diversified and wooded with oaks. Spots of this kind are found in many directions, averaging the distance of five miles and a half from Poole, as at Studland, Organford, Lytchett, Corfe Mullen, Sturminster Marshall, the neighbourhood of Wimborne, Canford,