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that 60 feet had to be taken down and rebuilt, and the conductor then fixed to it 

 has probably since protected both the church and surrounding objects. 



The town of Ross has extended in the direction of the railway station, and on 

 the Walford Road the suburbs of Ashfield and Tudorville have both spriing up 

 within the last 30 years. The Hereford, Ross, and Gloucester Railway, and the 

 Ross and Monmouth Railways, have been made in the same period, and instead 

 of six four -horse mails, and about a score of other coaches, passing through the 

 town daily, we have now the constant clatter of railway trains. 



The bog at Coughton Marsh, and also at Ailmarsh, have both been drained, 

 but no common or waste land has been enclosed, and otherwise there has been no 

 important change in the character of the neighbourhood, except the thinning of the 

 population in many of the rural parishes. There has been but little change in the 

 preservation of game, except at Little Doward, which is much more strictly looked 

 after than formerly. 



There has been a great increase of tourists, and ferns and other plants are now 

 sold freely at our railway stations. We will now notice some botanical changes. 

 A few plants have become quite extinct, as far as is known. The pretty lilac but- 

 terwort ( Pinguicula vulgaris J, from the drainage of Coughton Marsh ; Erodium 

 maritlmum, from the taking down of an old wall at Brampton Abbots ; Sparr/anium 

 minimum and Scii'pus lacustris, from the filling up of a pool ; Equisctum hyemMe 

 also from drainage ; Cynoglossum montanum, or the wood Hound's Tongue, pro- 

 bably from overgrowth of underwood ; Erodium moschatum has also, I understand, 

 disappeared from its locality of Hoarwithy ; Campanula rapunculus, which was 

 formerly found in the neighbourhood, has not turned up in recent years ; and the 

 following, which may be considered as strayjor doubtfully native plants, are not 

 now to be found : Smyrnium olusatrum (Alexanders), Ornithogalum nutans and 

 umbdlatum (Star of Bethlehem), Muscariracemosum, Lolium temulcntum (Drunken 

 Darnel). 



On the other hand, there have been large additions to the flora to compensate 

 for these losses. Amongst the plants which are become much more scarce of late 

 may be mentioned — Hutchinsia petrea, which appears to be rapidly disappearing ; 

 Helleborus fcetidus, formerly very plentiful on Great Doward, is now very seldom 

 met with on the banks of the river, where it was, one time, not uncommon. 

 Another plant, which at one time was found in some luxuriance, but now scarcely 

 met with except in the Forest of Dean, is the Henbane ( Hyoscyamus nigerj. Cys- 

 topteris fragilis appears to be exterminated by fern-hunters ; and the Bee and Fly 

 Orchis, as well as the Ccphalantkcra grandiflora and ensifolia, are probably nearly 

 lost, from continued uprooting. The Atropa belladonna, on the contrary, has con- 

 siderably increased, and sprang up in great luxuriance on the making of embank- 

 ments on the Ross and Monmouth railway. 



The alteration of a fence appears to have extinguished a good locality for 

 Doronicum pardalianches, probably only a garden escape. On the cutting of the 

 undergrowth in our woods, which usually takes place once in twenty years, there 

 is generally for a year a great abundance of foxglove, hemlock, and some other 

 plants which had remained dormant, C'ardamine impatiens, a somewhat rare plant, 



