34 



a system of minatiire valleys in cotirse of formation by streamlets 

 cutting their way through the sands — above these, the dry valleys 

 of the Inferior Oolite — and, yet higher, the streamlets borne 

 forward by masses of Fullers Earth Clays slipped forward from 

 their normal position. In fact, in this limited area, the subject 

 of Subaerial Denudation may be studied with great advantage. 



Another topic to which I would caU attention, and enter on 

 more in detail are the AUuviTims which are found occupying the 

 bottom of the valleys in many parts of this district. 



The line of my second section, in crossing the Nailsworth 

 Valley, cuts a small tract of these alluvial deposits, which 

 extend up and down the valley. Wherever they are opened 

 they are found to consist of beds of Gravel and Peat, resting on 

 the Lias. They vary constantly in thickness and in length. 

 The Gravels appear either to have been deposited in patches, 

 or the beds, originally larger, have been denuded. The beds of 

 Peat likewise vary greatly in thickness, but are more persistent 

 in width. Both Gravel and Peat contain organic remains : 

 those found in the latter are in a fine state of preservation. 

 Near Lightpill, a splendid stag's horn, measuring 2 feet 5 inches 

 from base to tip, and 9 inches in circumference above the ring, 

 was fotmd in the Peat. Above Nailsworth, portions of large 

 deer jaws and antlers have been met with. In the construction 



Eartli-mosses, accompanied by numlDerless young plants of various species, 

 which, after a while, proved to be Brynum hornum, Polytrichum commune, &c., &c. 

 The decaying " stools " of the felled trees were mantled with the vivid green 

 foliage of the Cypress-leaved Feather-moss, and more than twenty other species 

 of the genus Hypnwni ultimately flourished here. 



It is in such temporarily unoccupied soil that we must expect to find species of 

 plants, hitherto unknown in the locality, to make their appearance : and here, 

 before the ground was much occupied by the ordinary vegetation of the neigh- 

 bourhood, I found a single specimen of Lycopodiiim Clavatum. This, the 

 Stag's-horn Club-moss, has flourished on these hills to the present time, and in 

 some years spore-bearing spikes have been produced. As far as I have yet 

 ascertainedii/copodwm Clavatum has not been found elsewhere on the Cotteswolds. 

 Mr. Edwin Lees, Vice-President of the Worcestershire and Malvern Naturalists 

 Clubs, informs me that, though it has been found in a very few instances on 

 Hartlebury Common and Bromsgrove Lickey, it has never been met with on 

 the Malvern HUls. 



