1861.] BOTANY OF THE DOAVARD HILLS. 101 



BOTANY OF THE DOWAED HILLS. 

 Botany of the Dowards (HerefordslureJ , Great and Little. 



(From a Cojrespondent.') 



About ten years ago there appeared in the old series of the 

 ' Phytologist' (see vol. iii. p. 856)^ " Notes on the More Interest- 

 ing Plants found during a Day^s Excursion on the Great and 

 Little Dowards ; by William Bennett^ Esq.," and the reporter 

 and his companions had no reason to be discontented with the 

 result of their botanizing. 



The most experienced in such researches best know that all 

 the plants even of a very small district, say, for example, three 

 or four square miles, including considerable diversity of surface 

 and probably some variety of soil and elevation, are not to be 

 seen in a day, even by a company of acute botanists. All the 

 plants do not appear at the same period ; and even if they did, 

 strangers who visit a locality remote from their usual haunts 

 (about their own homes) seldom happen to fall upon the exact 

 spots where the rarer species grow. 



Some hitherto unrecorded species remain still to be noticed, 

 and the present contribution is offered to supply this infor- 

 mation. 



Clematis Vitalba is not one of the plants enumerated in the 

 list above mentioned, though it is not unfrequent on these hills. 

 Helleborus foetidus and H. viridis are additions to Mr. Bennett's 

 list. See ' Phytologist ' as above quoted. 



About twelve years ago H. foetidus grew plentifully in a wood 

 on Great Doward Hill, in Herefordshire, and has been gradually 

 decreasing since that period, and some two or three years since 

 it totally disappeared. It has been frequently and carefully 

 sought for by botanists well acquainted with its locality and 

 habits, but without success. The cause of its disappearance is 

 probably the growth of the underwood, and it is probable that 

 when the underwood or coppice is again cut, the Hellebore will 

 spring up anew. 



It is believed that the removal of the underwood from the 

 upper parts of , the hill has been the cause of the increase of 

 Carex montana, which is now found in profusion. 



Helleborus viridis grows in a pasture at the base of the Great 



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