50 



ON THE MORE EAEE PLANTS OF THE DISTRICT. 



By the Rev. Augdstin Let, M.A. 



Some of my earliest recollections are connected with an outlook, in which the hill 

 upon which we are now standing forms a prominent feature. Caplar Camp and 

 the yew trees which mark its south-east angle, were conspicuous objects from the 

 windows of my father's house ; and I remember distinctly an occasion when I 

 was eight years old, on which I was taken by some uncles of mine upon an expe- 

 dition to what seemed to me then an enormous distance, when after my being carried 

 pic-a-back alon^ some very muddy lanes, we arrived at length at Caplar hill and 

 Caplar Camp. It must have been, I think, a year or two earlier than this that 

 the present Vicar of Lugwardine used to frighten me, as a child, by the idea of 

 the dragons which inhabited the solitudes of the Carey woods just behind Aram- 

 stone house } and I remember distinctly the awe with which the idea inspired me 

 when I was wandering in them alone. 



Since that first expedition, and those childish years, I have made many others 

 to this place ; Carey woods and Caplar hill being reserved for us boys as a holiday 

 treat for a long ramble in search of birds' nests and flowers, and I shall always 

 connect Caplar with the unique pleasure which a lover of nature derives from 

 forming his first acquaintance with some of the less common among our common 

 plants. 



I ask your pardon for imposing upon you in the beginning of my paper these 

 childish trifles ; my apology must be that in my relation to birds and flowers I 

 feel still but a grown-up child— and indeed in our botanical pleasures of later 

 years, how much is but a child's ramble grown-up ; the same love of outward 

 nature, and the same wonder what may come next, deepened, it may be, by an 

 increased sense of beauty and a more intelligent questioning in Nature's great 

 open secret ? But at least these childish reminiscences may not be an unsuitable 

 beginning of a botanist's paper, since they, and such as they form the common 

 beginning of a botanist's life. 



Geologically speaking, Caplar lies wholly within the Old Red Sandstone 

 formation, and you must therefore not expect to hear of a rich flora. It is the 

 dominating point of a ridge runnin? S.W. for about 3J miles, and forming the 

 earliest of those characteristic great horse-shoe bends which mark the lower course 

 of the Wye, from Caplar downwards to the Wyndcliff and Llancaut, and add 

 so beautiful a feature to its scenery. The view obtained from the western face of 

 Caplar hill over the Wye, running immediately underneath, and over the expanse 

 of country both to the north and south, is well known and justly admired. The 

 steep northern escarpment of the ridge just mentioned is densely clothed with 

 wood, and varies in breadth from one to two hundred yards at its western extrem- 

 ity to three parts of a mile at Caplar hill. This wood takes the name of the 

 "Carey woods," and is the home and hiding place of many of the pretty thougn 



