XXX. THE FLORA OF HALIFAX. 



species in recent years. Wool and cotton also contribute their 

 share of introductions, the neighbourhood of Wheatley being 

 prolific a few years ago; and Gibson clearly found Hangingroyd 

 Mill, Hebden Bridge, a similar, happy, hunting ground. When 

 due allowance has been made for these influences, though, 

 perhaps, fifty colonists might pass muster, very few of them 

 are of frequent occurrence. Amongst them should be placed 

 charlock, the field pansies, corn spurrey, Gnaphalium uligiiiosum, 

 chamomile, species of sowthistle and speedwell, and Polygonum 

 Pevsicaria. The more familiar poppy, shepherd's needle, fool's 

 parsley, corn marigold, cornflower, &c, are decidedly scarce. 



The denizens of waste ground are largely drawn from the 

 orders Cvucif era, Leguminosce, Umbellifevce, Composites, Chenopodiacem 



and Polygonacece, and need not detain us further. 

 Railway But the somewhat similar problem of railway 



Banks. banks deserves more lengthy notice. The 



older embankments, on w T hich by the lapse of 

 years the vegetation has reached a stage of equilibrium, present 

 an aspect tolerably like that of the surrounding country. They 

 differ chiefly in the obtrusive abundance of the dominant species. 

 Whilst an old, undisturbed pasture is distinguished by the 

 variety and number of its species, the older embankment 

 exhibits the supremacy of a few, which differ entirely from 

 those present at an earlier stage in its history. The grasses of 

 the older banks are mainly Deschampsia flexuosa and Holcus mollis, 

 and the Hawkweed Hieracium boveale is particularly abundant. 

 Willow, broom, brambles, wood-sage and Heracleum are con- 

 spicuous, and a number of other species contribute in a less 

 degree. 



Two concrete examples will illustrate the history of 

 the earlier stages. The first, the embankment adjoining Wyke 

 Station, which w 7 as examined by Mr. C. E. Moss this 

 summer (1900), has evidently been made a number of years, 

 but has not quite attained the last stage described above, beyond 

 which there is, as yet, no progress. The second, a level stretch of 

 newly made embankment mostly formed within the last year or 

 two for sidings at Hipperholme station, was gone over by the two 

 of us jointly. At Wyke thirty species were noticed. In the 

 following list of them, those that also occured at Hipperholme 

 are distinguished by an asterisk. It will be observed that here 

 the typical railway-bank hawkweed had already asserted itself, 

 and as four species of grasses w r ere also abundant, the evolution 



