THE ORIGIN OF MOUNTAINS. 35 



We ought, indeed, to be thankful for our mountains : they are 

 fittingly the recreation-ground of the hard-worked citizen, and long 

 may they remain so ; although alas ! the hand of man is fain to break 

 the charm of the scene by introducing railways, and to modify the 

 natural beauties of a lake by turning it into a Manchester reservoir. 

 This may be a kind of evolution : it is, however, more pleasing to con- 

 template the natural evolution of the mountain, from the soft muds 

 of an ocean and the ashes of a volcano, through many changing scenes 

 in the earth's history, and to think that all it may teach, and the 

 influence for good its scenery may impart, were intended for the 

 benefit of man. 



THE FLORA OF WARWICKSHIRE. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS 



OF THE COUNTY OF WARWICK. 



BY JAMES E. BAGNALL. 



(Continued from page 14.) 



The Learn rises on Marston Hill, and flowing for a few miles in 

 Northamptonshire, re-enters the county near Wolfhamcote, and takes a 

 westerly course, flowing by Gran Iborough, Birlingbury. and Marton, 

 near which it receives on its left bank the River Itchin. From here 

 the Learn flows on near Wappenbury, Off church, Radford Semele, and 

 through Leamington Priors to Emscote, where it joins the Avon. Its 

 whole course is a somewhat tortuous one of thirty miles. 



The Learn receives on its right and left banks several streams. 

 On its right bank those draining Dunchurch, Draycote, Bourton, 

 Frankton, and Cubbington ; on its left bank the streams rising in the 

 high land about Shuckburgh, and near Marton the river Itchin, which 

 rises in the high land near Fenny Compton, and takes a northerly 

 course through Bishop's Itchington, near Southam and Long Itching- 

 ton, and thus on to Marton, receiving in its course the waters running 

 from the Burton Hills, Harbury, Wormleighton, Ladbrooke, and the 

 Napton Hills ; it has a course of about eighteen miles, but although 

 draining so large a portion of the county it is only in rainy seasons that it 

 assumes more than a brook-like character. Near Radford the Learn 

 receives a small brook draining a part of Chesterton and Harbury. 



The Stour rises on the south-west side of the Edge Hills, near 

 Brailes, and flows northwest through Cherriagton, Burmington, 

 Shipston-on-Stour, Halford, Alderminster, and Atherstone-on-Stour, 

 enters the Avon about two miles below Stratford-on-Avon. Its course 

 is about twenty-four miles, and it receives numerous streams draining 

 Long Compton, Tysoe, Brailes, Whatcote, and the country around 

 the Yale of the Red Horse. 



The Arrow rises in Worcestershire in a valley to the north-east of 

 Alvechurch, and takes a straight course southward. It enters Warwick- 

 shire on its western border near Beoley Lane, having just before 



