VOL. XVIII. (i) THE DISTRIBUTION OF CALLUNA 69 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF CALLUNA O^ THE 

 COTTESWOLDS 



BY 

 H. H. KNIGHT, M.A. 



[Read December 10th, 1912) 



A noticeable feature of the vegetation of the Cotteswold 

 country, in Gloucestershire, is the absence or rarity of plants 

 belonging to the Heath or Moorland associations. The fami- 

 liar Heather, or Ling [Calluna vulgaris Hull) is found in a few 

 places, and sometimes in abundance, as on Cleeve Hill and 

 Broadway Hill. In both these places it occurs on a sandy 

 deposit which Geologists call the " Harford Sands." Mr 

 Richardson, in his Handbook to the Geology of Cheltenham, 

 says this " deposit consists of white and pale-brown sand, 

 often cemented together by carbonate of lime. The rain water 

 gradually dissolves this calcai"eous cement, and leaves an inco- 

 herent accumulation of sand, composed of very fine quartz 

 grains." This non-calcareous sand, in which the Cotteswolds 

 are usually deficient, is favourable for the growth of Ling, with 

 which are associated other plants of the Heath formation as 

 Galium saxatile L. and Viola canina L. The Heather on 

 Broadway Hill is found mostly in Worcestershire, but some of 

 it extends over the boundary into Gloucestershire. 



There is a piece of land near Taddington and Snowshill, 

 known as the Ling Ground. Here the Heather grew in abun- 

 dance till a few years ago, when plantations destroyed it. It 

 still occurs in the isolated piece of Worcestershire close at 

 hand — that part in which Cutsdean is situated. 



I have not been able to find any Heather at Harford, near 

 Bourton-on-the-Water, the district whence these sands take 

 their name. Mr Riddelsdell has a record of its occurrence in 

 "Preserves between Notgrove and Bourton," where it may 

 possibly have been planted. Mr Richardson says that the 



