XVI. THE FLORA OF HALIFAX. 



Outlane. This has all been brought under cultivation, except a 

 patch of Outlane Moor, and with it has gone Anagallis tenella, 

 the Bog Pimpernel, which grew in Stainland Dean from 1775 

 to 1820, or somewhat later. But all the moors west of the 

 Hebble and Ryburn brooks are now preserved for grouse, and 

 it is extremely probable that the practice of firing the moors 

 periodically to encourage the growth of fresh shoots of heather 

 and bilberry must have a detrimental influence on rarer plants 

 associated with them. The club mosses have certainly dimin- 

 ished, and probably the lesser tway-blade, owing to this 

 cultivation of heather. But the presence of reservoirs is prob- 

 ably the cause of the disappearance of those that affect boggy 

 ground, for the reservoirs have certainly improved the drainage 

 of the moors. 



The land under cultivation is almost entirely pasture and 

 meadow. Hardly any arable land is seen, except in the 



neighbourhood of Copley, West Vale, Elland 

 Cultivated and Lightcliffe, where barley, oats and roots 

 Land. are grown to a small extent ; so the corn-field 



weeds take a very small place in the flora. The 

 farms are small, and mainly dairy for the supply of the towns. In 

 the neighbourhood of Queensbury and Swill Hill they ascend 

 to 1 100 and even 1200 feet, but elsewhere not higher than 1000 

 feet. The pastures on these moorland farms are very rough, but 

 productive of a considerable number of plants, which are driven 

 out of the richer fields in the valleys. The fields are invariably 

 divided by dry stone walls, in place of hedgerows. 



Park land only figures to a very small extent, chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of Lightcliffe (Crow Nest), Fixby, Skircoat to 

 Warley Town (Pye Nest and Willow Hall), Sowerby (Brock- 

 well) and Barkisland. 



The woods are numerous, but somewhat small. Every 

 valley contains some, bordering the stream or on the steeper 



slopes, and the western valleys around Hebden 

 Woods. Bridge are richly wooded. In almost every 



case these woods appear to be the much 

 reduced remnants of the original forest that occupied the 

 valleys, perhaps six or eight hundred years ago. Looking 

 down the length of the Calder valley, we find narrow strips of 

 wood appearing on one or other side, and frequently on both 

 together, on the steep slopes, all the way from Calder Head to 

 Brighouse. Their distance from the river increases as we de- 

 scend, and the valley broadens, but their situation is invariable. 



