Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club. 
Aveust 11TH, 1881. 
THE fourth field meeting was held on Tuesday, August 11th, and was a meeting 
of interest to the botanists of the Club, and to all lovers of trees, and other objects 
of nature. 
The objects laid before the members were to search for plants rare in the 
botany of our county, to be found in their walk over Bircher common to the cele- 
brated chestnut trees near Croft Castle (see pp. 101 and 110 of the last Volume of 
Transactions), and from thence up the beautiful dingle to the Camp at Croft 
Ambery. 
The day turned out more or less wet, and members did not muster at the rail- 
way station in very strong force. They were met at Leominster by the President 
(Rey. A. Ley), and Mr. B. M. Watkins, who had been out to explore the ground 
upon the day previous, and they proceeded by carriage to Bircher Common. Here 
an unsuccessful hunt was made for the Kehleria cristata, under the guidance of 
Mr. Hutchinson, the son of the successful finder of the grass in 1860. However, 
botanists are never daunted by want of success in the immediate object of their 
search. Indeed, considering the extreme rarity of the Kehleria in Herefordshire, 
and the lateness of the season (it being an early grass to develop), its non-discovery 
to-day was not to be wondered at. But naturalists know that when one good 
thing is missed, others are usually found, and the Lesser Bird’s-foot (Ornithopus 
perpusillus, L.) another rare and local plant in Herefordshire had been secured 
the day before upon the Common, and was exhibited to-day. 
After enjoying the lovely glades of Croft Park, and climbing the Ambery, 
the beauties of which could not to-day be appreciated owing to the rain, the mem- 
bers were joined by a fresh detachment, under the famous chestnuts, and proceed- 
ed to Aymestry. Here, on a wooded bank lying above Yatton Court, another 
plant rare in Herefordshire was secured, the Sheep’s-bit (Jasione montana, L.); 
as usual in scrubby and broken patches; the plant being so eagerly browsed by 
sheep that it is difficult to find an unmutilated specimen in any position where 
sheep can approach it. When the valley was reached at Yatton Court, the ditches 
at once showed the rare Figwort ( Scrophularia Ehrharti, Stev.), which is indeed in 
this part of Herefordshire the most common species. Aymestry is classical ground 
for this plant in Herefordshire; for it was here that it was first discovered by 
Messrs. Purchas, Crouch, and Woodhouse, in 1852. 
Arrived at Aymestry, some of the members yielded to the allurements of that 
beautiful spot, to rest during the one-and-a-half hours which remained before re- 
turning to Leominster: but the more zealous botanists made an expedition up 
