Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/70

 A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE The marsh cinqucfoil (PottntUla pahatrii) is now only known in this division, and many rare and uncommon brambles (Rubi), lichens and other fungi; some of the last have not however been seen since Bloxam's time. 2A. WEST SOAR The lowest ground in the county, 90 ft., is on the Trent bank in the north corner of this area, and all the highest in the county excepting Bardon Hill is situated in the centre, comprising the well-known Charnwood Forest, whose hills average about 700 ft. From a botanical point of view the glory of Charnwood has long since departed. Between two and three hundred years ago Charnwood was a well-wooded tract, but all the trees were cut down about 200 yean since. Older trees may be seen in other parts of the county than any now growing in the forest. Some- where about the same time as the cutting down of the timber, the forest must have been drained, for when Pulteney explored this area from about 1750 onwards, he never saw any cranberry, sweet gale or bog asphodel ; it is hard to believe that all these were absent before the drainage had made itself felt. Pulteney says he could not again find the marsh St. John's wort (Hypericum eludes) ; this plant very soon disappears from drained ground, whereas the sweet gale can live on comparatively dry sandy soil for many years. The cranberry is a puzzling plant ; it is absent from the New Forest, and yet grows in Woolmer Forest not far away, and in the Isle of Wight. It seems to have disappeared from its only Nottinghamshire station since 1886, but not because it was too dry, for it flowered three years ago in Leckby Carr, Yorkshire, which has been drained thirty years. There could not have been any bog in the forest in 1750, but some of the valleys were wet enough for a few plants which cannot live without a continuous supply of moisture. One by one they^disappeared, until now it is only in three or four very small patches of damp heath or pool margin that it is any use searching for them. Some parts of this forest are being very exten- sively quarried, as at Groby, Mountsorrel, Buddon, Markfield, &c. (syenite), and one of the most interesting bits of the old forest is being destroyed by the enterprise of the stone companies at Spring Hill and Peldar Tor (agglomerate). Where there are no quarries or slate pits the land is now highly cultivated, in some places to the bare crags on the tops of the highest hills. Here and there are small tracts of heath, and thanks to the fox-hunter, some covers and good sized woods ; in other uncultivated parts there is little to be found now but bracken, the common but beautiful hair grass (Deschampiia fexuosa), and in places where the land is almost completely drained the purple hair grass (Molinia varia) abounds to such an extent that scarcely any other flowering plant can exist. So monotonous is this, one cannot help wishing it were made into meadow without any further delay ; doubtless this wish will be fulfilled in due course. Of the plants which remain in this division, Capnoides claviculata grows luxuriously amongst rocks in several places near Whitwick (also outside the division on Bardon Hill and Cole Orton Wood); other plants which are very scarce outside Division 2A are Cerastium quaternellum, Scutellaria minor, Euphorbia amygdaloides ; the following are now confined to it : crowberry (Empetrum nigrum, Chrysosp/enium alternifolium, Cotyledon Umbilicus, Polygala oxyptera, Campanula patula, bog pimpernel (Anagallh tenella), Polygonum minus, Epipactis palustris, Eriopborum latifolium, Carex teretiuscula, the last two at Groby, the best locality in the division for rare plants ; it is hoped these will be long preserved. Rubus pallidus, W. & N., Inula britannica, an alien well established at Cropston Reservoir (not included in the list), also most of the liverworts (hepatics) and the few peat mosses known for the county ; two rare mosses formerly found at Swithland slate-pits, Bartramia ithypbylla, discovered by J. F. Hollings, and Grimmia commutata, Htlbn. by Bloxam, have not been observed lately. There were many rare lichens in the forest in Bloxam's time ; where are they now ? and what is the cause of their disappearance ? There are many collieries on the west and south-west side of the forest, the town of Leicester has increased enormously since these lichens were found ; can it be the smoke from these which has eradicated them ? A fair number of forms are, however, still growing, equal in number to those of counties similarly situated, and there are other conditions no less favourable than those which prevail here. Several very rare fungi are known to have been found in this division. Besides the igneous rocks and slates of Charnwood, Trias marls and sandstones (Keuper) covered by drift occupy nearly all the remainder (and the greater part of the division) ; there are small patches of Dolomitic Mountain Limestone at Grace Dieu, 'Greenstone' (Syenite) at Enderby, Croft, Potters Marston, Stoney Stanton, and Sapcote. 2B. EAST SOAR Upper and lower Lias clays prevail throughout, Marlstones at Wartnaby, Ab Kettleby, Holwell, Tilton-on-the-Hill, Owston, Wymondham, &c. The character of the actual surface soil, which often changes somewhat suddenly, is much modified, chiefly on the lias, where the hills are capped 32