NOTES ON THE FLORA OF DENBIGHSHIRE. 



BY 



A. A. DALLMAN, F.C.S. 



It is a somewhat remarkable fact that no detailed or repre- 

 sentative account of the flora of Denbighshire has ever been 

 pubhshed. At first sight this may appear rather singular, but 

 one has to recollect the extensive area and the wildness and the 

 inaccessibility of many portions of the county, the paucity of local 

 observers, and the too general apathy of the Welsh in regard to 

 natural history. Add to all these that the considerable but 

 scattered existing sources of material and local information are 

 found often in unexpected places, frequently none too easy of 

 access, and one may perhaps realize to some extent the great 

 difficulties which must be encountered in constructing such an 

 account. 



Several districts — as, for instance, Llangollen, the Creuddyn 

 Peninsula, and the Colwyn Bay neighbourhood — have long been 

 favourite resorts of the plant collector and botanist ; but although 

 the flora of these localities has been fairly well investigated and 

 possesses (Colwyn Bay excepted) a considerable bibliography, it 

 must be remembered that such districts only form a very small frac- 

 tion of the area of the entire county. The extent of Denbighshire 

 is given as 424,555 acres (663-4 square miles), but for biological 

 purposes it is in excess of this estimate. This is owing to the 

 occuri-ence of three anomalous districts, which are politically a 

 part of Carnarvonshire, although entirely detached from that 

 county and really situated in Denbigh. There can be no difference 

 of opinion as to the Conway River and Valley forming a perfectly 

 natural boundary on the west, and so the Creuddyn Peninsula 

 (which includes the Orme's Heads) and a small area lying l)etween 

 Llanrwst and Eglwys Fach — both on the east side of the Con- 

 way — must be considered a part of Denbighshire. The remaining 

 portion of " Carnarvon " — the parish of Llysfaen, situated between 

 Old Colwyn and Llanddulas — must also be included in Watson's 

 botanical vice-county 50. Mr. J. E. Griffith has dealt to some 

 extent with the vegetation of the Creuddyn Peninsula in his Flora 

 of Anglesey and Carnariwn, hut he rather inconsistently ignores 

 the two remaining isolated areas afore-mentioned. With these 

 additions the district under review — i. e. the botanical county of 



Journal of Botany, Feb., 1911. [Supplement.] h 



