Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1867).djvu/82

64 japonica, Prunus lauro-cerasus, P. lusitanica, Arbutus unedo, Ilex aquifolium, Ulex europaeus, Spartium scoparium.

To the upper limits in Northumberland and Durham of the various cultivated plants we have paid special attention, because it seems likely that many of them are grown successfully with us under lower temperatures than they are anywhere else in the island. There is a great contrast in the height to which houses and cultivation reach between the Cheviots and the Durham and South Tynedale hills, owing, no doubt, to the broad open dales and more gradual slopes of the latter, and the attraction of their mineral treasures. In the whole Cheviot tract there are probably not more than a dozen farm houses at above 1000 feet, and the cultivation of grain stops at 200 or 250 yards. In Durham, the highest regularly-inhabited house which we have seen, is the farm-house of Grasshill, on the west of the peak of Highfield, which is just 2000 feet above sea-level. In West Allendale there is a small village, called Coal Cleugh, at from 1650 to 1700 feet; and in East Allendale some of the farm houses are nearly as high, and the considerable village of Allenheads, with a church, school house, mining office, and gentleman's hall and grounds, stands at a height of from 1300 to 1400 feet. The following is a list made during various visits to Teesdale, of the height at which the different trees grow, either in a wild or planted state, and to which the different kinds of grain and vegetables are cultivated.

At 2000 feet.—Rhubarb, potatoes, turnip. A crop of each of these grown by the Highfield farmer in the hollow of a disused limekiln.

At 1700 feet.—Salix caprea.

At 1650 feet.—Rubus idaeus, Pyrus aucuparia, Corylus avellana, Salix aurita, S. phylicifolia, Rosa tomentosa, Ribes rubrum, R. grossularia (fruit poor).

At 1600 feet.—Oak, beech, spruce, sycamore, hawthorn, Wych elm, larch, Scotch fir.