547 



their appearance in localities where the conditions necessary to their 

 well-being are fulfilled; thus we find Sphagnum, Drosera, Narthecium, 

 and a hundred other plants in spots possessing the conditions they 

 require, although no other localities occur for miles around : nay, it 

 is almost impossible to cut a canal without having it half choked with 

 water-plants unknown in the neighbourhood. Typha, Ly thrum, 

 Butomus, and Alisraa luxuriate in the cavities made to supply the 

 embankments of the Eastern Counties, South Eastern, and other 

 Railways ; they come immediately, no one knows from whence. Un- 

 der these circumstances it does not seem extraordinary that salt- 

 loving plants should appear at Droitwich, where earth, air, and water 

 appear to be loaded with salt. 



We extract Mr. Buckman's interesting 



" List of Marine Plants now growing in the Valley of the Severn. 



" Scirpus maritimus. This salt-marsh plant occurs in considerable 

 quantity in the ditches of Longdon Marsh, near Upton-on-Severn, 

 Worcestershire, which doubtless at an earlier period constituted a 

 great back-water of the Severn estuary, and at the present time its 

 level is lower than the bed of the adjacent river, so that it has been 

 impracticable to drain it. 



" Gastridiwm lendigerum. This grass is seldom found except close 

 to the sea, but Mr. Lees found it in Sarnhill Wood, a lias eminence 

 on the western side of the Severn, near Tewkesbury. 



" Poa distans. A grass commonly found on the sandy sea shore, 

 but flourishing abundantly on the banks of the Droitwich Canal. 



" Triiicum junceum. Also growing by the side of the Droitwich 

 Canal. 



" Iris fcetidissima. Most common and luxuriant on the sea coast, 

 but forming actual thickets in Sarnhill Wood. Growing also on the 

 Berrow Hill, a lias eminence near Bromsberrow, as well as in the 

 Vale near Cheltenham. 



" Lepidium ruderale. Stated by Dr. Stokes as growing above 

 Worcester many years ago, and found on the banks of the Droitwich 

 Canal in 1847. 



" Erodium maritimum. On various rocks and banks about Bewd- 

 ley and Kidderminster, as well as around Hartlebury Common, near 

 Stourport.* 



" * This is a large common, made up of marine sand, which, at the present mo- 

 ment, is open and exposed, and the sand drifts about like sand on our present sea 

 shores, presenting all the effects of sand hummucks or dunes. 



