XXXIV. THE FLORA OF HALIFAX. 



The damp wood is characterised not only by the large 

 number of species present, but also equally well by the com- 

 plete absence of heather and the subordinate position of bilberry 

 The timber is varied, largely of course from purely artificial 

 causes, and being but thinly planted it admits of a consider- 

 able and varied undergrowth of brushwood, and beneath this 

 again a rich assembly of herbaceous plants and carpet vegeta- 

 tion. The oak is the most abundant tree, and often exceeds in 

 number all the others ; the sycamore is second, and is followed 

 by the wych-elm. The other forest-trees, ash, beech, birch 

 are relatively subordinate. Of the smaller trees and bushes 

 holly, hawthorn, elder, hazel, willow and mountain ash are all 

 of frequent occurrence, and guelder-rose, maple, cherry (various 

 species) and crab apple are thinly scattered. The most abun- 

 dant of the smaller shrubs are the bramble, honeysuckle, ivy 

 and roses (especially R. arvensis), with raspberry, sloe, bilberry, 

 gorse and broom in less quantity. 



The herbaceous vegetation comprises a number of social 

 species, either carpeting the length and breadth of the wood, 

 or forming smaller societies where the conditions are favourable ; 

 and in addition, other species found rather as individuals than 

 in societies. The social species do not enter into excessive 

 competition with one another, for though they occupy the same 

 ground, their times of appearance are widely different. The 

 earliest in the procession accomplish their flowering before they 

 are thrown into shade by the foliage overhead, owing to the 

 reserve material stowed away in bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, etc. 

 Coltsfoot, butterbur, perennial mercury, lesser celandine, and 

 wood anemone give place to the sheets of bluebells or wild 

 hyacinths, which are accompanied by stitchwort, garlic, violet, 

 Lychnis dioica, wood-rushes, etc. In turn the bluebell disappears 

 almost as completely as the lesser celandine or anemone, hidden 

 in the extensive tracts of bracken — the most social of ferns — or 

 beneath the still taller wood millet grass and Heracleum Sphon- 

 dylium, or in the wildernesses of bramble and trailing rose. 



The remaining flora of the mixed deciduous woods is given 

 below in three lists. The first completes the tale of such as 

 are frequently met with, either as individuals or small societies, 

 and it includes quite a number of shade-loving plants ; the 

 second enumerates the rarer species, found either very sparingly 

 or in but few localities ; and the third contains the marsh 

 plants of the wood. Some of these are to be found in marshy 

 ground outside the woodland area, but an attempt has been 



