Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/91

 BOTANY IN general character the flora of the county corresponds to its geographical position. Herefordshire is a West-Midland county bordering on its western side on the Welsh counties of Brecon and Radnor. The River Wye, rising in central Wales and having (along v^rith its tributaries) a Welsh course of about loo miles, has a length of 72 miles within Herefordshire. These circumstances give to the flora of the county a closer connexion with those of Breconshire and Radnorshire on the west and of Shropshire on the north than with those of Worcestershire and Warwickshire with which Herefordshire is associated in the Watsonian sub-province of Mid-Severn. The flora of Herefordshire is limited by the following conditions : — (a) The complete absence of sea coast and tidal estuary. (6) The very small and diminishing area of bog and marsh land. (c) The comparatively small area of open common and heath land. Taken together these circumstances greatly limit the number of species. They are counteracted to a certain extent by conditions tending to enrich it : — (a) The large area in the county of woodland which is almost certainly part of the primitive forest of Britain. This woodland, after diminishing rapidly in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, is not likely under the present conditions of agriculture to diminish in the near future. (J>) The influence of the Wye system and the Welsh borderland which adds a good many montane species. The total of recorded plants having good claims to be considered native in the county is as follows : — Flowering plants and fern allies, about. . 990 Musci. . . . . . . .326 Fungi 1439 Worked out under the Watsonian ' Types of distribution ' the flowering plants and ferns come out as follows : — British type 558, or rather more than one-half. English type 253, or rather more than one-quarter. The remaining groups are represented by 25 Scottish, 9 Intermediate, 10 Highland, 21 Germanic, 15 Atlantic, 9 Local. These numbers total to 900, leaving about 90 unplaced, mostly aliens. 39