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THE FLORA OF KERSAL MOOR, NEAR MANCHESTER. 

 By J. Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S. 



Few suburban resorts are better known to the resident in 

 Manchester than Kersal Moor. Situated as it is on high sandy 

 gi'ound to the north of the city, about two and a-half miles from 

 the Exchange, and formerly extending as far as the cliff which 

 overlooks the valley of the Irwell, it has played a more or less con- 

 spicuous part in the local annals, at one epoch being the scene of 

 a military encampment, as during the Chartist riots (there are 

 still to be noticed scanty remains of earthworks) ; and at another, 

 and that for many years, being the spot where the Manchester 

 races were held, traces of the race-course are still plainly 

 visible. And at all times it has been to the citizen, pent up in a 

 close and smoky street, a haven of refuge for the time being, 

 where he may inhale a purer and more invigorating air. Although 

 surrounded on two sides at least by buildings, mostly private 

 residences, it still preserves its earlier natural features to a great 

 extent intact. 



Kersal Moor, as it at present exists, with the three or four 

 fields adjoining, comprises about twenty-five or twenty-six acres, 

 and has been very recently let by the owner of the property to 

 the Salford Corporation for a term of twenty- one years. This body 

 has recently encircled the Moor with a ring fence, and placed seats 

 on it, in the endeavour to make it assume the character of a public 

 park. They have also issued stringent regulations against the 

 plucking of heather and other plants and shrubs. 



The following list, the result of five or six years researches from 

 time to time, gives a fairly exhaustive enumeration of the Phanero- 

 gamia of the Moor, which, it must be understood, comprises, besides 

 the Moor proper, the fields sloping down to Singleton Brook, between 

 the Moor and the road leading to Rainsough village, in the parish 

 of Prestwich. 



The Flora is mainly interesting as showing what may still be 

 found on the outskirts of the largest manufacturing city in the 

 kingdom. It might have been expected that the smoke of Man- 

 chester, and the fumes emanating from chemical manufactories, &c., 

 in Salford, might have seriously diminished its natm-al productions ; 

 but that this is not the case the following list, consisting of about 

 240 species, or about one-eighth of our native Phanerogamic Flora, 

 amply testifies. 



Anemo7ie nemorosa, L. — Sparingly, among meadow-grass in the 

 field next the Moor ; very abundant in the neighbourhood. 



Ranunculus peltatus, Fries. — Sparingly in swamps. Not noticed 

 since 1879. 



R. ccenosus, Sm. {R. Lenormandi, F. Schultz). — Ditches ; not un- 

 common in the neighbourhood, though rare by Singleton Brook, at 

 the edge of the Moor. 



R. Flammula, L. — Abundant in the boggy portion of tlie Moor, 

 by Singleton Brook. 



