Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/86

 A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Our streams too are small and sluggish, and too heavily-laden with lime to afford any great variety of waterweeds. The chalk-hills of Oxford, Bucks and Beds do not enter into our county, nor is there any great extent of aboriginal turf, such as clothes the Cotswolds, on the limestone formation of Northamptonshire, so those typical gypsophiles or calcipetes, as species loving lime or chalk have been termed, the chalk milkwort {Polygala calcarea), the box {Buxus sempervirens), the large earth-nut {Carum Bu/bocastanum), the gentian [Gentiana germanica), the musk orchis {Herminium Monorchis), the mili- tary orchis {Orchis militaris), the monkey orchis (O. Simia), are absent, as are the fumitories {F. parviflora, F. Vai/lantii and F. densijiord) and the candytuft {Iberis amara), which are found in arable fields on the chalk formations in the bordering counties. The enclosing of the grassy borders of the roads, and the greater attention to cutting and trimming of the hedgerows, has robbed us of the plant which was formerly the pride of botanists of the county, namely the prickly eryngo {Eryngium campestre), which formerly grew by the old Watling Street near Brockhall. The perennial flax {Liniim perenne) has met with a similar fate it is to be feared in the east of the county, and the star-thistle {Centaurea Calcitrapa) has not recently been found. Again we lack the presence of the older rocks, such as are to be seen in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, where the New Red Sand- stone and syenitic rocks come to the surface, and give a home for heath, bog and forest plants, where a few species occur, or did until recently occur, which are absent from our area ; these include the bell-flower [Campanula patula), the crowberry [Empetrum nigrum), the cotton grass [Eriophorum vaginatum), the small furze {Ulex Gallii), and the sedges [Carex Jiliformis and C. diandra or teretiusculd). The inland position of the county necessarily shuts out a large num- ber of littoral species, but it is somewhat singular that the celery {Apium graveolens) should really be absent from our fen ditches which appear so suitable for it, and we appear to have no brackish springs such as are found in Warwickshire and Berkshire, which are likewise inland coun- ties, and there give a home for Scirpus maritimus and S. 'Taberncemontani. Perhaps these plants, with the horned pondweed [Zannichellia peduncu- lata), may hereafter be found. At one time the extensive quarries of stone, which in places had become grass-covered, yielded many botanical treasures, and some of these — notably those of Barnack and Colleyweston — are still the most interesting localities for plants in the county. In the course of time, however, the soil on them accumulates, and gradually from decaying vegetation the surface soil becomes richer, and on this strong grasses, such as Poa pratensis and Dactylis or Arrhenatherum, get introduced and gradually push out the sheep's fescue {Festuca ovina) and Kcehleria, while they prove most obnoxious to the orchids and other limestone-loving species. The taller growth and richer herbage of the species alluded to also overshadow and reduce the sun temperature which Composites such 52