162 



It was a striking and uncommon variety, but happily the highest authority for 

 this puzzling genus was present, and on being appealed to, Mr. Lees pronounced 

 it to be Rubus rudis. 



The way was then taken for the high road, and soon a very interesting halt 

 was called in tfee corner of a barley stubble field, just below the convent. 

 Beneath the drop of a hedgerow oak some funguses were found of a very 

 peculiar character. They were judged at first to be the Sc'erodcrma vulgare, 

 with its usual centre of dark-blue sporules, opening in a peculiar stellate way 

 in consequence of the dry weather. Mr. Broome, however, at once remarked 

 that the stellate markings were visible on the immature funguses, and he 

 pronounced it to be Scleroderma gcaster of Fries, which we may call the 

 star-like Scleroderma. This variety, though often looked for, has never before 

 been found in Britain, and thus a marked addition to British Fungology has 

 once again been made by the Woolhope Club. 



The carriages were again taken at the Longworth entrance lodge for 

 the foot of Backbury Hill. At the Priors Court Farm they were left, and the 

 ascent of the hill commenced through the dense covert which clothes its sides, 

 all beautifully variegated as it was by the touch of autumn. Amongst 



"the tints of rich and roseate hues," 

 the leaves of the wild Gueldar rose, Viburnum lantana, here at home upon 

 limestone, and the almost bloody hue of the Spindle-tree, Eaonymus Eurojjceus, 

 were eminently conspicuous, contrasted as they were with the pale orange of 

 the Maple, and the varying hues of the fading leaves around them. 



Backbury Hill has several botanical productions of interest, among 

 which the Green Hellebore, HcHeborus liridis, may be noted, while the masses 

 of Virgins-bower, Clematis vitalba, flourish with such graceful exuberance 

 as to arrest attention at every step. 



The hill is formed by the Aymestrey limestone, which at the summit is 

 broken up into great masses of exposed rock, with such deep cavities and 

 passages interposed between them as to suggest some violent cataclysm having 

 taken place on the spot rather than that slow wearing away by the tooth of 

 time, as was contended for by the Rev. J. D. La Touche. Traces of violence 

 here seemed evident, though whether by the gunpowder of man in blasting 

 the limestone of the quarry or the earthquakes' Titanic effort in ages past, 

 there is no record to show. There is a very interesting Camp on the summit, 

 with a double entrenchment towards the east, and a covered way, but it may 

 not now be dwelt upon. 



The exposed precipitous masses of fractured rock are commonly called 

 "Adam's Bocks," but from what circumstance the name is derived, whether 

 legendary or historical, is not known. It may possibly arise simply from the 

 popular idea of their primeval antiquity, or perchance some glorious old chief- 

 tain of that ilk held the Camp successfully against all comers ; or again, some 

 inglorious rustic Adam may have broken his neck here on a misty November 

 eve, and thus have handed his name down to posterity. Bo this as it may, the 



