52 



of its kind, in the bortler of the wood about half-a-mile below Caplar. Consider- 

 ing its occurrence at Doward, Symonds Yat, and again at Welsh Bicknor, I 

 think the evidence balances in favour of its nativity at Caplar also. But it reap- 

 pears in great quantities in the limestone woods at Uowuton, in the gorge of the 

 Teme. Are we to consider it native there, or was it planted as an ornamental 

 tree before the introduction of the more favourite Tilia intermedia, which is now 

 the ordinary planted lime ? One question with regard to this tree I want to ask : 

 Does it occur in the woods overhanging the Wye at Linder, three miles south of 

 Caplar ? If it does, we should then have a complete chain of stations for it in the 

 lower course of the Wye, and its indigenousness in the Wye valley would be fairly 

 certain. It does not apparently occur in the ordinary Herefordshire woods, away 

 from the river valley ; and when occurring in the open country it is always clearly 

 planted. 



Right under the dominating point of Caplar hill there is an extensive natural 

 slip, the lower part of which has been converted at some distance of time into a 

 quarry. From this quarry, I believe, the stone used for building Hereford Cathe- 

 dral is traditionally said to have been obtained. Here it is that the rarer plants 

 of Caplar are crowded (as is often the case) into a small space. On approaching 

 the quarry from the river the appearance of Yellow- wort (Chlora perfoliata) 

 quickens the botanist's attention, and shows him that he is in a place where some 

 "good things " may turn up. Nor will it disappoint him ; for, after a few steps, 

 turning to the right upon the dihria of the quarry, he will see the Mountain St. 

 John's-wort ( Hyyericuni niontaniim ) in abundance. Clambering up steep bushy 

 slopes on the other side of the quarry, he will, if he is fortunate, find himself in a 

 colony of the beautiful Bee orchis (Ophrys musciferaj. Thi.s plant was discovered 

 here by my brother some years since, and I have myself seen it here in several 

 subsequent years. But it is not to be seen there by any means every year. 

 Mounting in the line of the slip, the Mealy Guelder-rose (Viburnum Lantana) 

 will next claim his attention ; and still further up, in the same place, I found, two 

 years ago, the Fingered Sedge (Carex digitata) in small quantities. This plant is 

 the rarest yet detected upon Caplar. It is its third station in Herefordshire, but, 

 as far as I am aware, the only one in the British Isles where the plant occurs ofiF 

 the limestone. 



There is good botanising ground about this slip, and the loose coppice-clothed 

 rocks which He underneath it, among which something very good ought some time 

 to turn up. And I want to call the attention of botanists to the fact that lime- 

 stone — or what are usually considered limestone — plants, are in Herefordshire 

 often to be found on our Red Sandstone formation, especially when there is much 

 marl present in the strata. Here at Caplar, besides the limestone plants above- 

 mentioned, several rare mosses occur which belong chiefly to limestone — Trichos- 

 tomuin crispnlum and Barbula recurvifolia and spadicea (both these last in fruit), 

 while the beautiful velvet Ctenidium molluscum clothes the fallen stones in masses. 

 The Caplar and Carey woods are remarkable for the fruiting of some mosses rare 

 in producing fruit, such as the Brachythecium glareosnm, Thuidium tamariseinum, 

 and Hyocomium triquetrum. Anomodon viUcidosus fruits freely here every year. 



