EXCURSION TO MALHAM. 7 



based. I shall perhaps explain these laws best by giving a short descrip- 

 tion of the rocks in our neighbourhood, where the reader may examine for 

 himself the foundation on which our science is laid; for ten minutes' 

 examination of a quarry or coal-pit will give him more sound information 

 on the subject (especially in company with a geological friend) than a 

 month of book -reading. 



(The subject will be continued in the next number.) 



J. S. 



ii,u)xnim to p^lltam. 



Malham in Craven is remarkable for the rare and interesting 

 character of its Flora. Hence it is a place of great importance to the 

 naturalist, and was selected for the Haley Hill Literary and Scientific 

 Society's excursion on Saturday, May 3rd, 1865. The members alighted 

 from the Midland Railway at the little station of Bell Busk, which is 

 about five and a half miles from Malham. The day was sufficiently 

 bright and fine to obtain a view of Malham from the top of a little mound 

 near the station. The path first lies through a few fields which are 

 bounded by walls of limestone matted with moss and adorned with 

 lichens. From a stream in these fields was gathered the close-leaved 

 pond-weed (Potamogeton Densus) in bloom. This plant grows entirely 

 submerged except during the impregnation of the seeds, when the flowers 

 are just out of the water. From the tendency of submerged aquatic 

 plants to shrivel up in drying, it is necessary to make an examination of 

 their parts at once, and for this purpose a small lens called the Coddington 

 lens is useful. We now come to a road leading through a beautiful tract 

 of pasture land, enclosed on both sides by high hedges of Thorn and other 

 trees, under whose shade are growing many plants which deserve particular 

 attention either for their beauty or rarity. The Harts-tongue (Scolo- 

 pe idriura Vulgare) ; the common maiden -hair (Asplenium Trichomanes), 

 both ferns of no ordinary beauty, may be found here together with many 

 of the flowers which deck our hedge-banks in Spring. The common 

 Polypody (Polypodium Vulgare) appears to have made in these hedgerows 



