847 



In this same marsh several other rare plants are to be found. The Marsh 

 Violet, Viola palustris, which is a great rarity in our county, occurs here in small 

 quantity. The Marsh Thistle, Carduus pratensis, the rarer of the two Marsh 

 Orchises, Orchis incarnata, and the Bog Bean, Menyanthes trifoliata, abound in 

 this marsh ; and a Sedge, Carex Icevigata, which has not been found elsewhere in 

 Herefordshire, inhabits the wet thickets. 



Along the banks of the stream in the Grwyne Valley grows a rare Umbellifer, 

 which I am inclined to believe a true Native in this valley — the Sweet Cicely, 

 Myn-his odorata. This plant at once reveals itself as distinct from all others of 

 its numerous and puzzling order, by the enormously large seeds, and by the strong 

 spicy odour of its crushed leaves. In all its other Herefordshire habitats, it is 

 nearly certainly an outcast, or owes its existence in some way to former cultivation. 

 It occurs thus in the Honddu, and again in the Craswall, Valley, in single clumps 

 near ruined cottages. But in the Grwyne Valley its aspect is quite different. 

 There it fills the small thickets, along the course of the stream, for some miles ; and 

 though, of course, it still remains possible that it may have been originally intro- 

 duced, yet one only has to compare its perfectly different aspect in this retired 

 valley to that which it bears at other stations, to feel that its presence in the 

 Grwyne valley is due to a different cause. 



One only plant exists in the Honddu Valley the presence of which we can with 

 assurance attribute to the religious house of Llanthony, the Green Hellebore, 

 Hdlehorus viridis. This plant existed some years back in a hedge in close 

 proximity to the Abbey, but the hedge has been since destroyed ; and the plant 

 has, I fear, disappeared with it. 



In the small grain, or potato, patches of this district, the botanist will meet 

 with a Brassica, which was a good deal talked of a few years ago among botanists. 

 This is an annual form of the common Wild Navew, Brassica sylvestris, which 

 was first found by Mr. Archer Briggs near Plymouth, and was named after him 

 Brassica Briggsii. It springs up in potato patches, or similar cultivated ground, 

 in early summer, and has the peculiarity (connected no doubt with its annual 

 growth) of retaining its rough grass-green root leaves together with the glaucous 

 blue-green stem leaves, and heads of golden blossom, which belong to the common 

 riverside form. This is, I believe, a true Native, not a degenerate turnip ; and 

 it is not uncommon in the hilly districts of Radnor, Brecon, and Hereford, 

 though almost, if not quite, absent from the lowlands of Herefordshire. I 

 know not whether it has turned up elsewhere, except in the neighbourhood of 

 Plymouth. 



A plant which is suprisingly rare in the Black Mountain District is the 

 Mountain Pansy, Viola lutea. This beautiful pansy is common in many hill 

 districts, for example on Radnor Forest ; but on the Black Mountain area it is 

 most rare. Once only in my life I have met with a single patch of it — on the hills 

 just above Hay (in Breconshire). Still there is ample testimony that it does 

 exist in other places. It is mentioned in one of the volumes of " The Transactions " 

 (1871-3, p. 3) as having been found at Twyn-y-bedau in the Cusop dingle ; and a 

 lady friend of mine. Miss DuBuisson, found it on the Hatterel range ; while a 



