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ON THE BOTANY OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ROSS, AND THE 
LOWER PORTION OF THE WYE VALLEY, 
By Mr. Henry SourHatu. 
In giving some account of the more interesting plants to be found in the 
above district, there will be no attempt to present an exhaustive essay on the sub- 
ject, or even to furnish a complete list of its flora, but we shall confine ourselves 
to a hasty sketch of what has come under our own notice in the course of rambles 
in the locality extending over a period of more than twenty years. Many of these 
have been so pleasant and delightful that it is more than possible that an undue 
partiality may be shown to what we shall be excused for considering one of the 
most rich and varied in its vegetation of any equal area in the United Kingdom, 
viz., the Doward Hills, Symonds’ Yat, and the Coldwell Rocks. 
« In this locality, in a geological point of view, perhaps the most interesting 
feature may be the junction of the Old Red Sandstone with the Mountain Lime- 
stone, of which latter formation most of the Crags over-hanging the Wye are 
composed, whilst large masses of conglomerate obtrude in places from the hill 
sides, occasionally forming blocks in thebed of the river, where no doubt they have 
rolled, when loosened from their former beds. 
T mention this as explanatory of the character of the soil, upon which so 
much depends as regards the plants and trees growing on it. 
Another noticeable feature of the neighbourhood is the large extent of wood- 
land and the luxuriance and the great variety of the trees with which the tops and 
sides of the hills are clothed, in this respect presenting a marked contrast to 
Yorkshire, where the timber, especially in Wharfdale, is pretty much confined to 
the valley, leaving the higher ground nearly bare. 
Indeed much of the beauty and picturesqueness for which the Wye scenery 
is so celebrated, particularly in Spring and Autumn, is due to the different colors 
and foliage of so large a number of almost every kind of tree, many appearing to 
be indigenous to the soil. 
Two or three varieties of the Oak are met with. Mr. Babington, however, 
does not admit that there is more than one species of Quercus in Britain. 
The beeches, sycamores, chestnuts, and birches attain to great size. The 
large and small leaved varieties of the lime are seen growing close together. 
The Yew is very abundant and seems to favour the line of the conglomerate 
strata. 
The genus Pyrus is not only represented by the Crab Tree (Pyrus malus) 
and the mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia ) but by the service tree (Pyrus torminalis D 
as well as the Pyrus scandica and Pyrus latifolius, and the white beam (Pyrus aria) 
remarkable, not only for its bunches of white blossoms when in flower, and of 
berries when in fruit, but for the whiteness on the under sides of its soft and 
