53 



Turning to the eastern side of this ancient sea-coast, the lecturer pointed out 

 the broad vale of Severn, formed on the surface of the New Red Sandstone, and 

 bounded to the eastward by the Blue Lias, a deposit of mud in the waters which 

 once covered the district ; and beyond it the high range of hills, with the outlying 

 masses of Bredon Hill, Robin Hood's Hill, &c., composed of the Oolite. From 

 that spot, no part of the Wiltshire Hills was discernible ; but, after passing the 

 Oolite, they would come next upon the Cretaceous system, or chalk ; and after 

 that upon the Tertiary system, until they reached the London clay, and the 

 formations which contain remains of animals and vegetables most nearly resemb- 

 ling those of the present system. The lecturer closed, amid applause, a most 

 interesting address, of which this is a mere summary, by referring his hearers for 

 details to the great work of Sir R. Murchison, "The Silurian System." 



The assemblage then proceeded, under the guidance of Mr. Strickland, to 

 visit quarries on the Holly-bush sandstone, the Caradoc sandstone, the Wenlock 

 limestone, &c., and at each place, the energetic tapping of several scores of 

 hammers must have considerably startled those celebrated personages, the genii 

 locorum, unless indeed they had taken a mid-day nap in some ot the few wooded 

 dingles which were not visited by the enthusiastic philosophers. In the Caradoc 

 sandstone, at the base of the Obelisk Hill, specimens of Area Eastnorii, Lingula, 

 Fucoids, and other characteristic fossils were found by some of the party. At a 

 quarry of Wenlock limestone, several remarkably fine corals, madrepores, &c., 

 were found, and carried off in triumph by members of the various Clubs, to grace 

 the museums of Worcester, and the private collections of the explorers. After 

 crossing the Ridgeway, the geological section of the party made their way to the 

 Inn, to await, with appetites sharpened by the pure air and eager explorations of 

 the morning, the arrival of their botanical confreres, and of the dinner so much 

 needed by both. 



During the interval, a collection of beautiful specimens of the principal 

 fossils of the Silurian rocks was exhibited by the Rev. W. S. Symonds. 



THE BOTANICAL SECTION, 



under the guidance of Mr. Edwin Lees, F.L.S., of Worcester, took the same 

 route as the geologists, until they reached the Ragged Stone Hill. From that 

 point they made their way into the many beautiful rocky and wooded dingles 

 lying between it and the Ridgeway. On their way they gathered, in Holly-bush 

 gully, some rare lichens, carices, and ferns, among which were Jungermanniffl, 

 Carex strigosa, &c. ; on the hill, the singular Adder's-tongue fern, Ophioglossum 

 vulgatum ; and in other parts of their rambles, Trifolium striatum. Geranium 

 columbinum, Aquilegia vulgaris, Moenchia erecta. Ranunculus parviflorus, Lepidi- 

 um Draba, Arenaria rubra, Vicia angustifolia. Professor Buckman, of Cirencester 

 College, remarked that, so far from this last named plant being, as was commonly 

 supposed, a distinct species from Vicia sativa, he is now raising good agpricultural 

 vetches from this supposed different species. In the woods of the Ridgeway 



