Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/75

 BOTANY in this direction the streams run into the Rea, while Yardley, the extreme north-easterly parish of Worcestershire, drains into the Cole. A little to the south are the large reservoirs connected with the Birmingham Canal, whose waters run into the Arrow, and so into the Avon On the right bank of the Severn its most northern tributary is Dowles Brook, which divides Worcestershire from Shropshire. Follow- ing up Dowles Brook, the water-parting dividing it from the basin of the Teme is arrived at, on the other side of which the Rea flows into that river at Newnham Bridge. Following down the course of the Teme, which runs in a most picturesque valley, at Eastham, on the right bank, some rare orchids have been observed. The tributary brooks in this district are highly charged with lime, which in places is deposited as masses of travertine, so plentiful at Southstone Rock and elsewhere that it forms a useful building material in the neighbourhood. The soil of this district appears favourable to the growth of orchidaceous plants, and the following have occurred, some very abundantly : Epipactis latifolia, E. palustris, Habenaria bifolia, H. conopsea, H. viridis, Neottia nidus- avis. Orchis pyramidalis, O. Morio, Ophrys apifera, O. muscifera and Spir- anthes autumnalis. Just outside the county boundary on the Herefordshire side of Sapey Brook, which runs into the Teme, a single plant of Epi- pogum aphyllum was gathered in 1854, unknown before to the flora of Britain, but the plant has not again rewarded the most diHgent search in the locality. Near here, and as close to the county boundary, but in Herefordshire, grows Eryngium campestre. On the left, or east, bank of the Teme rise the Abberley Hills reaching a height of over 800 feet, and possessing quite a sub-alpine appearance ; and to the south of them is Woodbury Hill, nearly the same height. But these hills are curiously barren botanical ground, and little of any interest has been observed in the locality. To the north of Abberley is a little tract of carboniferous measures forming the Pensax coalfield, which also is not a prolific botanical district. At Knightsford Bridge the Teme breaks through a ridge of high land, leaving Ankerdine Hill on the left bank and Rosebury Rock, a mass of Permian breccia, on the right. Henceforward the Teme runs through broad meadows to its confluence with the Severn below Worcester, receiving on its way two tributary brooks — Leigh Brook, coming up the from south-west and the high land which forms the continuation northwards of the Malvern chain, and falling into the Teme at Leigh ; and Laughern Brook, which for some miles pursues a parallel course to the Severn, often not a mile away from that river, and falls into the Teme at Powick Bridge. In the northern part of its course through the county the Severn, in comparatively quite recent times, flowed over a wider bed than at present contains it, and this at a time when its waters were at least brackish. Lagoons seem to have been left in many places by the retreating waters, which were first marshes and are now dry sandy wastes or valleys. Habberley Valley, near Kidderminster, is a well-marked in- stance, and of the same nature is Hartlebury Common. Maritime plants 37