Ixviii FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



The downs are thickly covered with plants, and though the number 

 of species composing the down-flora is not large, yet the individuals 

 are in countless numbers and are of a very interesting character. The 

 arable fields offer much less that is attractive. They often occupy dry 

 valleys of the Chalk formation, and a walk across them on a hot day 

 may easily lead to the over-estimation of the distance traversed, yet 

 even here the botanist may be rewarded for his exertions. On 

 one such day I found in these localities some curious specimens 

 of Bromus tnollis, which were determined by Professor Hackel to be 

 a new variety of that species, but which I have since raised to specific 

 rank. 



The views from the Chalk downs of Lowbury, Streatley, and Basildon, 

 although not so extensive as those to be obtained from the hills of the 

 Ock district, yet have a charm which is to some extent absent from 

 the latter, namely, the proximity of the Thames, which is here a full- 

 fed river, slowly winding under the wooded heights of Gathampton ; 

 these offer a singularly-varied foliage, from that of the dark-coloured 

 yew to the lightest-green leaves of the young beech and the almost 

 yellow leaves of the oak, which here grows on such a shallow subsoil 

 that it puts on autumn tints before summer has begun. These, again, 

 are relieved by the beautiful foliage of the beam tree iPijrus Aria), which 

 a breeze of wind turns to silver. Beneath the wood comes a strip of 

 living emerald pasture gilded in spring with Marsh Marigold, or frosted 

 with Lady's Smock, and adorned in summer with a rich riparian growth 

 of Sedge, Willow-weed, Purple Loosestrife, and Water Dock, or the 

 exotic-looking leaves of the Butter Bur. The river itself in some of its 

 back-waters or in its shallower channels will be seen thickly covered 

 with the brilliant white flowers of the Water Buttercup, with its masses 

 of dark-green foliage waving with the currents of the stream ; its 

 margins show the turquoise-coloured flowers of the Forget-me-not, the 

 holts exhibiting the beautiful purplish-blue blossoms of the Meadow 

 Geranium and the satin-shining catkins of the Sallow or the feathery 

 flowers of the Meadow-sweet. Then, if we shift our point of view, we 

 obtain a prospect over softly swelling downs which are studded with 

 Juniper bushes and redolent of Thyme, and brilliant with the orange 

 flowers oi Hippocrepis, the Horse-shoe Vetch, and the blue of the Chalk 

 Milkwort. The arable fields in this district seem to show fewer traces of 

 the deteriorating influences of cviltivation. Indeed, they often supply 

 us with masses of colour which it is said that the floras of tropical 

 countries cannot outrival. The Red Poppies are sometimes so abundant 

 in a field of corn as actuallj"- to distress the eyes when gazing upon them 

 at mid-day under a bright June sun. At other times the rich crimson of 

 a field of Italian Clover, lighted up by the slanting rays of the setting 

 sun, or a field of Charlock seen, as Tennyson says, ' in the sudden sun 



