JU]S'CrS GEEARDI IN LIJSX'OLXSIIIRE '333 



JUXCUS OERARDI IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 

 Br THE Eey. E. a. Woodruefe-Peacock, F.L.S. 



This may be a species, but personally I consider it only a variety 

 of J. compressus. It arrived in this parish, Cadney-cum-Howsham, 

 North Lincolnshire, about 1900, on the western rise just below Hows- 

 ham day-school. There were only a few scattered plants at first — 

 three or four : they were not in the least csespitose then. As it was 

 most certainly a new arrival I determined to watch it very closely. 

 Missing out dates generally, these notes are the practical results of my 

 observations. 



The plant spread down the south side of this road on the damp 

 Chalky Boulder Clay for some twenty ^^ards in more or less solid 

 caespitose masses. About 1906 it crossed the road to the much drier 

 grass-edge of the raised foot-path on the north side. From this posi- 

 tion apparently it began spreading rapidly, for the north side of this 

 road is the one used. In 1912 I detected it in a furrow by the road- 

 side through a meadow 2\ miles to the west in Cadney. Two years 

 later it was in the furrow on both sides of this road ; in the same year 

 by the foot-path grass side in the village of Cadney, and later 

 below a natural spring pond in a pasture 350 yards to the north. 

 At first it was not caespitose in any of these spots. 



Now as all these localities have been analysed annually to pick up 

 any indications that they might give regarding means of transport, 

 there can be no doubt that this species was detected as soon as it was 

 in evidence. * 



The following is what I judge to be the history of this species in 

 this parish. Till this world-war stopped it, the school children here 

 visited the sea-side every July, spending a day at Cleethorpes. There, 

 at the junction of the Humber Estuarj^ with the sea, this Junciis 

 grows. In warm dry seasons like those between 1893 and 1900 this 

 species has ripe seed between the loth and 25th of July. Its seeds 

 will not float in water, but when damp, like those of other Junci, 

 have a slight mucosity sufiicient to make them stick to boots. In 

 tliis wa}'', I believe, it was originally carried from Cleethorpes shore 

 to just below Howsham School. It has been spread by the same 

 means to the spots in Cadney, or b}^ the feet of cattle perhaps in the 

 last-named locality. 



This is not all. Juncus seeds, as a rule, soon sink in flowing water, 

 unless by their mucosity they can attach themselves to drift of some 

 kind. My friend Dr. H. H. Corbett, of Doncaster, tells me that the 

 following estuarine species are on the warpings at present being made 

 on Thorne Waste, by the Great Central Railway, about six miles 

 south of the Biver Ouse, from which the warping drain brings the 

 water surcharged with estuarine alluvium. The seeds of Aster Tri- 

 polinm sink at once in water, but it is practically found on all 

 warpings. The seeds of Afriplex deltoidea will float for six months ; 

 it too is practically always found under the same conditions. Scirpus 

 maintimus seeds will float from one to four weeks, and it is generally 

 found on warpings. Juncus Gerardi is also usually found there. Now 



