Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/107

 BOTANY spurge laurel [Daphne Laureola), the purple willow [Salix purpurea), the frog-bit [Hydrocharts Morsus-rana), the lesser water plantain {Echlnodorus ranunculoidei), the snowdrop [Galanthm nivalis), the ramsons [Allium urunum), the marsh orchis {Orchis latifolia), the fragrant orchis [Hahenaria conopsea or H. Gymnadenia), the bird's-nest orchis {Neottia Nidus-avis), the wood rush [Juncoides or Luzula multiflorum), the wood club-rush {Scirpus sylvaticus), the sedges (Carex paniculata, C. pallescens, and possibly C. strigosa), the wood millet grass [Milium effiisum), the wood small reed [Calamagrostis epigeios), the heath hair grass [Deschampsia flexuosa), the melic grass [Melica uniflora), also Poa compressa, Agropyron caninum, the large horsetail [Equisetum maximum), the ferns Dryopteris (or Lastrea) dilatata, D. spinulosa, and many other species. Geddington Chase, near which is one of the crosses erected to the memory of Queen Eleanor, is on the Oxford clay, and has no very special plants recorded except the woolly- headed thistle [Cnicus eriophorus), the sweet chestnut [Castanea sativa), the daffodil [Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus), the drooping star of Bethlehem [Ornithogalum nutans), and the wood hound's- tongue [Cynoglossum montanum). Sywell or Seywell Wood and Gibb Wood (425 feet above sea-level), Pytchley and Orlingbury afford the wild everlasting pea [Lathyrus sylvestris), the saw-wort [Serratula tinctoria), the giant throat-wort [Campanula latifolia), the wood pimpernel [Lysimachia nemorum), the pyramidal orchis [0. pyramidalis), the cotton-grass [Eriophorum angustifolium, and the adder's-tongue fern [Ophioglossum vulgatum). Some coppices on the borders of Buckinghamshire near Easton, Grendon and Bozeat yield the columbine [Aquilegia vulgaris), the zigzag clover [Trifolium medium), the lady's mantle [Alchemilla vulgaris), the brambles [Rubus dasycarpus, R. Radula and R. echinatus), the orpine [Sedum Telephium), the great burnet saxifrage [Pimpinella major), the shepherd's rod [Dipsacus pilosus), the heath groundsel [Senecio sylvaticus), the saw-wort [Serratula tinctoria), the fellwort [Gentiana Amarella), the herb Paris [Paris quadrifolia), and the small reed grass [Calamagrostis epigeios). There are considerable woodlands in the neighbourhood of Brigstock, where the stinking hellebore [Hellehorus fcetidus), the golden rod [Solidago Virgaurea), the wall lettuce [Lactuca muralis), the hound's-tongue [Cynoglossum officinale), the tooth wort [Lathrea Squamaria), and the fly honeysuckle [Lonicera Xylosteum) have been gathered. There is very little heathland left in the district, but a few furze commons now enclosed retain traces of their former vegetation. Billing Lings, as its name denotes, formerly had ling [Calluna) and heather [Erica cinerea), and traces are possibly left. The buck's-horn plantain [Plantago Coronopus) existed till the * thirties,' and may perhaps not be wholly extirpated. This neighbourhood with that of Overstone, which are on the North- ampton sands, yield the field chickweed [Cerastium arvense), the rose-bay willow herb [Epilobium angustifolium), the tuberous moschatel [Adoxa Moschatellina), the heath bedstraw [Galium hercynicum), the small valerian [F. dioica), the hawkweed [Hieracium umbellatum), the viper's bugloss [Echium vulgare), the birch [Betula alba), the white-flowered helleborine [Cephalanthera pollens), the heath grass [Aira pnecox), and the lady fern [Athyrium Filix- faemina), but the marsh fern [Dryopteris Thelypteris) is now extinct. Kettering Links and some heathy ground near Thorpe Malsor are now greatly diminished in extent and altered in character to what they were in the time when Morton wrote his Natural History, when the upright pearlwort [Cerastium quaternellum), the heath cudweed [Gnaphalium sylvaticum), the field gentian [Gentiana campestris) if that was really the plant meant, the garlic [Allium vineale), the heath rush [jfuncus squarrosus), and the perfoliate yellow- wort [Blackstonia perfoliata) occurred there. Some of them may still linger with the St. John's worts [Hypericum pulchrum and H. humifusum) and the blue fleabane [Erigeron acre). The capon's tail-grass [Festuca Myurus) has also been recorded from the vicinity. The adventitious flora of the district is rather large, as many foreign and a few native species are found about the sewage works and some few near the corn mills, e.g. Sisymbrium Sophia, Lepidium Draba, Lythrum acutangulum, Ferbascum virgatum, Melilotus alba, Couringia orientalis, Tragopogon porrifolius, Mariana lactea. Datura Stramonium, Chenopodium Fulvaria, C. hybridum, Anthoxanthum Puelii, Santia [Polypogon) monspeliensis, Panicularia [Glyceria) distans, Phalaris canariensis, Panicum miliaceum, Setaria viridis, S. glauca and Lepidium sativum. In addition the Cheddar pink [Dianthus ca^sius or gratianopolitanus) is naturalized on a wall near Rush Mills, and the evergreen alkanet [Anchusa sempervirens), the dame's violet [Hesperis matronalis), the periwinkle [Finca minor), the snowdrop [Galanthus nivalis), the tuberous comfrey [Symphytum tuberosum), the star of Bethlehem [Ornithogalum umbellatum), the fly 73