3o8 EAEER PLANTS OF CENTRAL SOMERSETSHIRE. 



being often a very short distance below the surface, and famishing 

 abundance of excellent stone for walls and buildings. There is a con- 

 tinuous high ridge of limestone called the Polden hills, which runs 

 from north-west to south-east for a distance of ten or twelve miles, 

 with mostly wood on the top and a steep slope towards the west, but 

 nowhere reaching a height of a thousand feet above sea-level. It is 

 on the very top of thisridge opposite Somertoa that Altlima hirsuta 

 occurs, and there are other isolated hills of limestone in the district, 

 many of them with wooded caps or slopes, so that except close along 

 the main streams the general character of the district is that of un- 

 dulated, moderately-wooded limestone country, quite free from the 

 heaths and wide sweeps of heathery swamp that form such a promi- 

 nent feature a little further west in the Exmoor ^ and Dartmoor 

 country, where the subjacent rock is granite or Devonian sandstone. 



Clematis Vitalha, Everywhere plentiful in hedges and woods. 



JVtiphar lutea. In the Gary at Somerton and the Parret at 

 Langport. 



Papaver dubium. Very rare here as compared with P. RJiceas. 



Chelidonium majus. Hedge near Somerton gasworks. 



Conjdalis lutea. Walls at Somerton court-house ; of course in- 

 troduced. 



Fumaria confusa. "Weed in a garden at AVells. 



Coronopiis Ruellii. Koadsides at Somerton and Street. 



Thlaspi arveiise. Cornfields south of Somerton. 



Nasturtium terrestre and N. sijlvestre. Banks of the Parret at 

 Langport. 



Sinapis nigra. Banks of the Gary below Somerton, and of the 

 Parret at Langport, 



Helianthemum vulgare. Gommon on the Polden hills. 



Viola hirta and V. odorata. Butleigh woods, on limestone banks. 



V. tricolor. In the variety arvensis only. 



Lychnis mspertina. The pink variety in cornfields on Butleigh 

 hill, and on the Somerton road near Langport. 



Sagina apetala. Walls about Somerton. 



Arenaria leptoclados. Wall-tops at Langport and Somerton. 



Cerastium aquaticutn. Ditches about Ilchester and Somerton, and 

 frequent by the Gary. 



Malva moschata. Butleigh woods. 



Althcea hirsuta. Near the woodman's cottage in Butleigh woods, 

 and border of the iirst cornfield along the path from Butleigh woods 

 to Hurcot ; I think a true native. 



Hypericum Androsccmum. Butleigh woods ; not plentiful. 



R. hirsutum. Koadside near Somerton court-house. 



Erodium moschatum. Foot of walls in the village of Compton, 

 and near the woodman's cottage in Butleigh woods. 



Geranium columhinum. Hedgebanks about Kingsdon and Somer- 

 ton ; frequent. 



Euonymtis exiropceus. Plentiful in Butleigh woods. 



Rhamnus catharticus. Butleigh woods, a few trees. 



Ononis spinosa. Roadsides between Somerton and Kingsdon. 



Anthyllis Vulneraria. Echo hill and wood near Long Sutton. 



Medicago maculata. Banks of the Gary below Somerton. 



