A BOTANICAL STROLL THROUGH THE FROME AND 

 BROMYARD DISTRICTS OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 



Bt Mr. B. M. WATKINS. 



"Beautiful children of the woods and fields ! 

 That bloom by mountain streamlets 'mid the heather. 

 Or into clusters 'neath the hazels gather ; 

 Or where by hoary rocks you make your bields. 

 And sweetly flourish on through summer weather, 

 I love ye all." 



On behalf of the ■Woolhope Club I proceeded on the 28th of May last to 

 risit the Frome and Bromyard botanical districts of the county, for the 

 purpose of making a list of the wild plants growing there. 



Learing Holm Lacy Station for Mordif ord, where I observed the LatTiyrus 



sylvestris growing plentifully, I went through Dormington to Weston Beggard, 



at which place I commenced my obsei"vations, in the Frome district. On 



Shecknal HiU I gathered the hard grass, Glifceria ririida, and the silvery hair 



grass, Aira caryopliyUca, and passing by its quarries of Upper Ludlow rock, so 



interesting to geologists, but giving nevertheless a dry and arid aspect to that 



side of the hill, I entered a wood which afforded a rich contrast. The vegetation 



■was luxuriant, and the ground covered with flowers. 



" It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground. 

 And there a season atween .Tune and May, 

 Half prankt with sjiring, with summer half embrowned." 



Here was the bugle, Adjitr/a rcptans, and the self-heal, PrimeUa vulgaris, in 



fine growth ; the silverweed, PotentUla anserina, with le.aves eighteen inches 



long, bright and silvery bene.ath, was very elegant and beautiful ; the St. John's 



wort, Hypcrkum perforatum, and n. puhhrum : and an abundance of that 



bright, cheerful flower of spring, the lesser cel.andine. Ranunculus ficaria; but 



by far the most charming of aU was the pretty Germander speedwell, Veronica 



clutmcrdrys in some places called "birds' eyes," and by some one, probably an 



ardent admirer of feminine beauty, not inappropriately, " angels' eyes." Its fine 



spikes of dazzling blue flowers were in splendid profusion. 



Passing through some old orchards, the canal of Westhide was soon 

 reached. Here was a species of water ranuciilus, which was the Ranuncuhis 

 trickophyllus, if the rigid (not collapsing) submerged leaves and the absence of 

 floating leaves may be sufficient to determine it. The water milfoil, Myrio- 

 phyllvM spicatum, was plentiful, and so too was that pest, the American water- 



