279 



the rare plants of the district, and is tempted to roam from one habitat to 



another for the peculiar species that are confined, from height and other 



circumstances, within prescribed limits. These plants are catalogued, and 



form what is technically called "The Flora" of a district or country. A 



mere list of orders, genera, and species, such as are usually given in a Flora, 



even when subdivided into districts, by no means presents to the mind or the 



eye a notion of the prevailing vegetation anywhere. The statement that the 



following plants, among others, grow on the Malvern Hills, viz. : — 



Pinguicula vulgaris Sedum album 



Anagallis tenella Potentilla verna 



Chrysosplenium altemifolium M.unchia erecta 



Narcissus pseudo-narcissus Corydalis clavlculata 



Montia fontana Gnaphalium sylvaticum 



or an entire list of all the plants growing there, by no means gives an adequate 



notion to the mind of the vegetation making up the aspect of the hills ; and 



so with other portions of country, the woods, the upland meadows, and the 



banks of rivers. To do this, reference must be made to what Baron Humboldt 



has called the " physiognomy of vegetation," and then the different parts of 



any region may be contrasted with each other. Even portions of the same 



chain of hills may show differences of aspect, according to the plants clothing 



the ground, and among the Malverns the appearance of the well-named 



"HoUybush Hill," ever robed in the dark verdancy of that spiny-leaved tree, 



offers a remarkable contrast to the treeless North Hill, invested in summer 



with a robe of glowing puri)le from the numerous foxgloves (Dkiitalis 



purpurea) that then cover it. In early spring the verdant mosses and the 



light green Eaplwrbia amygdaloides give beauty to the slopes, while later in 



the year the exposed sides of the Malvern hills are refulgent in gold from the 



extent of blossoming autumnal furze (Ulex (jalUi). The common brake (Pterin 



aquilina), equally abundant about the bases of the hills in autumn, as that 



season approaches combines the burnt sienna of its fading fronds with the 



dark-green of the furze. 



Then again, in different seasons particular plants, from meteorological or 

 unknown circumstances, swarm in an extraordinary way, and give a feature 

 to the landscape that may not occur again for years. Thus, at times, the 

 great brown withered-like parasite Orohanchc major will appear among broom; 

 the bitter cuckoo-flower ( Cardamine amara) be abundant on the side of little 

 rills ; the golden Chrysosplenium in similar spots ; the beautiful twining 

 wood vetch (Vicia sylvatica) profusely in woods ; the purple saintfoin 

 fOnobrychis saliva), and the pyramidal orchis (0. ^^yramidalis ) on limestone 

 rocks ; or the (Enanthe phcllandrium by pools, and the elegant rose- 

 clustered dropwort (Spiroia fllipcndula) filling upland meadows. 



This variety in the aspect of vegetation contrasts with rocks as distin- 

 guishing countries, for as Humboldt has well observed, the granitic rock, the 

 basaltic column, and the limestone ridge, is the same in Iceland and Sweden 

 fis in Mexico and Peru, but who could mistake the vegetation of those distant 



