Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/76

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE still exist in some of these localities. On Hartlebury Common Convolvulus Soldamlla has been gathered, and Erodium maritimum occurs there and at Habberley. The valley in which the Salwarpe runs from Droitwich to the Severn at Haw^ford was probably an arm of the river of a similar character, and in it is found a remarkable collection of maritime plants, including Apium graveolens, Spergularia salina, Glaux maritima, and abun- dantly on the banks of the river at Droitwich, Lepidium latifolium, which are perhaps survivals of the former flora kept from disappearing by some brackish quality in the water of the neighbourhood. Worcestershire possesses two considerable tracts of native woodland, which have possibly never suffered more at the hand of man than thinning and felling. The Randans and the nearly adjoining wood of Pepperwood stretch from some three miles from north-east to south- west in the neighbourhood of Bromsgrove, and Wyre or Bewdley Forest covers a much more considerable tract of land in the north-west of the county, extending over into Shropshire, Dowles Brook, which runs through the forest, forming the county boundary. The latter wood is composed nearly entirely of oaks {Quercus Robur) and scattered yews, but possesses few large specimens, the timber being usually cut down as soon as it grows to a size fit for poles. In Wyre Forest grew the historic sorb tree, Pyrus domestica, possibly the only wild tree of the species in Britain. This tree, noticed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1678, and then old, continued to exist until 1862, when it was burned down by a fire kindled by a vagrant at its foot. It had become very de- crepid and was alive only at the ends of its gaunt branches, but it produced flowers within a few years of its destruction. Grafts taken from it are flourishing trees in the arboretum at Arley Castle near Bewdley. Wyre Forest yields several plants not to be found in other parts of Worcester- shire, including Cephalanthera ensifolia. Geranium sylvaticum, Pyrola fninor, Rubus saxatilis, Spiranthes cestivalis, now probably extinct, and Thalictrum minus. The undergrowth of Shrawley Wood, by the side of the Severn, consists to a large extent of the small-leaved lime, Tilia parvifolia. In the neighbourhood of Pershore are several large woods, and a considerable amount of woodland, though in scattered portions, covers the hilly district that forms a northern continuation of the Malvern range. In the extreme east are the Slads and Yield Woods, and between them and Evesham is Craycombe Hill and the wooded heights behind Wood- norton. In the more southern portion of the county there is but Httle woodland, nor are there any large woods in the extreme south-east. About Halesowen deep ravines have been cut in the softer measures by the numerous streams that descend from the hills, and for the most part these are shaded by belts of woodland, which sometimes join on to large expanses, as in the case of Ufmore Wood. In these dingles are Cam- panula latifolia, Chrysosplenium alternifolium, Geum rivale and Paris quadrifolia, pretty generally distributed. The Malvern Hills run parallel with the average course of the Severn for a distance of nine miles, some four miles to the west of the 38