349 



with these two occurs also a Rose, Rosa spinosissima, confined to this single spot. 

 This spot is close to the most favourite of the eyries, one of which is chosen 

 annually by a pair of ravens for their nidification ; and it would be curious to 

 know whether the occurrence of three rare plants at this single spot, two of them 

 absolutely confined to it, has any connection with the birds. The Rosa spinosissima 

 might, as its name suggests, have been easily brought by the far-wandering bird, as 

 a defence for its nest, from some distant sea-side clifiE or sand dune. Were the 

 Hawkweed and the Cranesbill also brought by it, from the fells of the Lake 

 district, where both abound ? It would open a novel principle of plant distribu- 

 tion, if it were so. 



No account, however short, of the Flora of a district is complete without the 

 mention of those plants, which might be expected to occur in it, but do not. One 

 of these "absences," the most striking of all perhaps, in the district we have in 

 hand to-day, has been alluded to — the absence of the Cross-leaved Heath, Erica 

 cinerea. Of this I have never seen a single specimen from the whole of the 

 Llanthony district. Again there is no Cloudberry, Rubus Cftamamorus, no 

 Cranberry, Vaccinium Oxycoccos, on the Llanthony Hills, but these are rare plants 

 as far as my experience goes in all South Wales. There is no Scottish Asphodel, 

 Narthecium ossifrar/um, no Sweet Gale, Myi-ica Oale, no Parsley Fern, Crypto- 

 gramme crispa, no Mountain Tway Blade, Listera cordata, no Wood Stitchwort, 

 Stellaria nemorum, no Lesser Skullcap, Scutellaria minor, no Mountain Cudweed 

 Otmphalium dioicum, no Marsh St John's Wort, Hypericum elodes, no Suberect 

 rubi, no Caltha minor, no Thalictrum montanum, no Sedum Forsterianum, no Carum 

 verticillatum, no Carex dioica, and lastly no Poppies have as yet been reported 

 from all the district. Some of these " absences" are due, it will be observed, to 

 the absence of bog ; others cannot be accounted for on any known principle. 

 Several of the rarer of the absent plants grow freely in the similar and adjoining 

 mountain district of the Brecon Beacons ; and we are still in hopes that a more 

 careful search will disclose them here. 



Subjoined are several lists which it is thought will be of interest to the 

 naturalist. 



LIST I. 



Plants common in the Honddu and Grwyne Valleys, as hill districts, but rare 

 or absent in the lowlands of Herefordshire. 



Prunus Padus 

 Pyrus Aucuparia 

 Vaccinium Vitis-idaea 

 „ Myrtillus 

 Erica Tetralix 

 Calluna vulgaris 

 Pinguicula vulgaris 

 Empetrum nigrum 

 Potamogeton polygonifolius 



Trigloclin palustre 

 Juncus squarrosus 



„ supinus 

 Luzula multiflora 

 Scirpus csespitosus 

 Eriophorum vaginatum 



„ angustifolium 

 Carex vulgaris 



