Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/71

 BOTANY and the valleys more or less thickly covered by accumulations of drift (sands, gravels, and clays), and by a broad strip of alluvium in the valley of the Soar, there is a fringe of lower Oolite along its north-eastern boundary, Lias Limestone at Barrow towards the north-west. The only plants in this large division which seem to be confined to it are Carum segetum, found at the last named place by Mrs. Foord-Kelcey, 4 and a bramble ; the Oolite is too well cultivated to admit any of the plants which are so characteristic of this formation, excepting the old quarries or stone-pits near Waltham and Stonesby. 4 " Nothing here is absent from Division 4, but close by is a rare bramble (Rubus dumetorum, var. rubriflorus) found in 1906, but not elsewhere in Leicestershire. Other plants ought to be found in this neglected corner. The highest ground on the east side of the Soar is 700 ft. near Tilton and 570 ft. near Croxton Park and Waltham. The lowest is on the Soar bank, 120 ft. approximately. 3. DEVON The high ground at Croxton Kerrial is capped by the impure Limestone (Lincolnshire Lime- stone and Northampton sand) of the lower Oolite, to the west is a strip of calcareous sand of the Marlstone, elsewhere Lias clay and Marlstone preponderate. Excepting the famous Belvoir Woods, and the rather numerous fox covers and the barren Croxton Park, this area is highly cultivated, or pasture and meadow land. Some parts are over-drained, as evidenced by the pastures in a hot dry summer. The woods about Belvoir and Stathern are now too dry for variety of wild plants, of which there is very little, even in the damp parts wherever a little spring is allowed to assert itself. If these are advantages to the sportsmen, and doubtless they must be, the botanist must not forget that the fox covers are the homes of a few wild plants that would have to go if the same were converted into cultivated land. This district was first explored by the poet Crabbe, and has had much attention since his time, but much might be done, as some cryptogams have had no attention. Knipton Reservoir and the pond below it will be found to contain many microscopic plants not yet recorded for Leicestershire ; the division is very poor in mosses, and hepatics are remarkably scarce. One very promising-looking spot, the source of the Smite, is the only locality where these have any chance of maintaining an existence ; it is, however, a most disappointing place for the searcher after mosses and hepatics. Here is a rare bramble, Rubus Koehleri (type). Three plants rare in this county were found by the Rev. A. E. Furnival ; these are Cerastium arvense (at Harston) and Astragalus bypoglottis (A. danicus, Retz) at Muston, both plants are also in the next division (4), and Trifolium scabrum at Muston. Epipactis media was reported by Mr. G. C. Druce for Belvoir. From the lowest part of the vale, 140 ft. (approx.), the ground rises abruptly more or less from Belvoir Castle to Old Dalby and beyond the boundary to Six Hills, the highest point, 533 ft., being at Harby Hills ; here the wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudo-narcissus] has its home, but not elsewhere in Leicester- shire. Ononis spinosa is very characteristic on grassy roadsides and sometimes in rough pastures. Perhaps the most striking plant is the honeysuckle, which grows most luxuriously in places about Belvoir (and Croxton Park just outside in Division 2B). Carduus nutans is luxuriant on Marlstone. 4. WITHAM (AFFLUENT) This very small area being almost all on the Oolite the flora is small and less varied than in the other divisions, but several plants grow here that are not found elsewhere in the county, some occur- ring in greater abundance than in any other division. A narrow belt of wild ground has been most fortunately preserved by his Grace the Duke of Rutland, the flora of this belt is composed of colonies, some large and others exceedingly small, the representatives of larger colonies which flourished on Saltby Heath before it was reclaimed and converted into meadows and cornfields ; it is really most remarkable how some of these plants maintain an existence even on preserved ground, because the smallest have to contend with the largest, and must eventually be driven out by them. Crabbe does not appear to have visited this locality, but must have been very near it ; his record of Antennaria dioica refers to a place very near if not actually on the eastern boundary of the ' belt '; he also found Chlora perfoliata at Saltby and Sproxton. Pulteney first found Clinopodium acinus, one of the most plentiful plants to be seen here now, but his reference to two others is too vague ; ' chalky soil on the eastern side of the county ' may mean any place on the Oolite which extends into 2B and 3. Coleman certainly came here and found Bromus erectus, the most abundant and widely dispersed plant in this division. It is usually accompanied by another grass, Brachypodium pinnatum, which was first noticed by Pulteney somewhere on this side of Leicestershire. Three conspicuous plants which are known in other parts of the county are Helianthemum vulgare, Cnicus eriophorus, and Orchis pyrami- dalis. Cerastium arvense and Astragalus danicus are only known here and in one place in Division 3. 4 Mr. Harris first found this. <a Arabis hirsuta ought to be found here. i 33 5