346 



Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage, Chrysosplenium alternifolium, is abundant and 

 very fine ; and the Narrow -leaved Marsh Willow-herb, Epilobium paliistre, which 

 is quite rare in most districts of Herefordshire, is common in damp spots, both, I 

 believe, in the valley and on the hill-sides. 



The mountain meadows in the spring are bright with the Meadow Orchis, 

 Orchis Morio. This plant, though existing all through Herefordshire, attains its 

 greatest beauty in the hill districts ; and in the Grvvyne Valley the corner of a 

 meadow will be met with filled with the rarer Globe Flower, TroUius europceus ; 

 while in both valleys the Water Avens, Oeum rivale, will be occasionally found, 

 often in company with the Globe Flower. In the Grwyne Valley, too, the 

 Smaller Butterfly Orchis, Hahenaria bifolia, will be found. This is quite a 

 different plant in its habits and distribution in Herefordshire from its near 

 congener the Larger Butterfly Orchis, Hahenaria chlorantha. This latter is a 

 lowland plant inhabiting woods ; the former an inhabitant of hill-meadows and 

 banks, and is the rarer of the two in our county. I need only glance at the rare 

 Orchid Hahenaria alhida which was found in one spot in the Grwyne Valley a few 

 years ago. Neither the Globe Flower nor the Lesser Butterfly Orchis are known 

 to occur in the Honddu Valley ; though, since both are plentiful in the Craswall 

 and Olchon as well as the Grwyne Valleys, it is moat probable that they really 

 occur in that which lies between them. 



The tops of the hills are the only places in our county where the Little Club- 

 rush, Scirpus ccBspitosus, is found ; while the short turf consists in large measure of 

 the tough springy Grass, Nardus stricta, and the equally springy Rush, Juncus 

 squarrosus, which contribute greatly to its elasticity underfoot. The boggy parts 

 produce the Cotton-grasses in abundance, Eriophoruvi vaginatum and angusti- 

 folium and latifolium, also, but more sparingly ; and the spring heads are full of a 

 Water Crowfoot, Ranunculus Lenormandi, which does not occur elsewhere in 

 Herefordshire. Here too, in spring, the Butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris, spreads 

 its flat greasy leaves, and lifts its beautiful violet-like blooms, while at a later 

 season of the year the same spots are carpeted with the Creeping Forget-me-not, 

 Myosotis repens, distinguished from all others of its tribe by the intense azure blue 

 of its flowers. The rare fern, the Green-stalked Maiden's-hair, Asplenium viride, 

 has been long known to be an inhabitant of Taren'r-Esgob. Here it existed some 

 years ago in large quantity and greater luxuriance than I remember to have seen 

 it anywhere else. It is still to be found both there and at other less known stations 

 in these hills, in fair, though I am sorry to say, diminishing abundance. 



In a marsh at the bottom of the Grwyne Valley two ferns exist which are both 

 of them great rarities in Herefordshire — the Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis, and 

 the Marsh Fern, Nephrodiuni Thelypteris. This is the sole station which we 

 possess for the latter, and almost the sole station for the former ; and I should 

 have refrained from speaking of them to-day, but that on visiting them last year 

 I found that both had been sadly pillaged. Indeed, of the Marsh Fern there was 

 scarcely anything left, and a year or two will ensure its extinction. It is a great 

 pity that the Woolhope Club can do nothing to prevent this culpable waste of the 

 botanical treasures of Herefordshire. 



