269 



Mr. L. considered that nearly one half of the plants occupying the Malvern Hills 

 are Cryptogamic ; and the following synopsis will show this to he not an unreasonahle 

 supposition, especially as the census the author had taken is not to be considered a per- 

 fect one, embracing however all the species Mr. L. had been enabled to identify after 

 an attentive examination of five years and upwards, 



ENUMERATION. Species. 



Ferns and Equisetaceae, 25 



Mosses, 121 



Jungermanniae, 23 



Other Hepaticae, Characeae, &c 15 



Lichens, 223 



Fungi, 305 



Total, 712 



Mr. Lees had been unable to give any attention to the AlgcE Confervoidece, and had 

 not taken much note of the minuter species of Sphceria among the Fungi, so that were 

 these carefully noted by the algologist and practised mycologist, doubtless the list 

 might be easily extended to a thousand or more. But in an enumeration of the Flo- 

 ra of any locality, especially when considered with reference to a comparison with otlier 

 lists, it is hardly fair to drag into the account every black spot or stain upon leaves or 

 dead sticks ; and therefore Mr. L. had left untouched nearly all but the really tangi- 

 ble and decided species, independent of minute microscopical examination. 



Ferns. — The rarer ferns of the hills are Pobjpodium Dryopteris and Allosorus ciis- 

 pus ; the latter only occurs upon the Herefordshire Beacon, thus offering a good illus- 

 tration of the geographical distribution of plants, the fern thus occurring so sparingly 

 on these hills being plentiful upon the Welch mountains. Asplenimn viride, also an- 

 other fern of common occurrence about the waterfalls of Wales, though not found oa 

 the hills themselves, occurs on an old stone bridge over the Teme called Ham Bridge, 

 a few miles northward of Great Malvern. Aspidium Oreopteris occupies in profusion 

 the margin of various boggy spots on both the eastern and western sides of the hills. 

 Aspidium dilatatum is of common occurrence among the stones of the hills; and As- 

 plenium Filix-fcemina almost fills the little watery glens running among them. Poly- 

 podium vulgare, with stunted growth and multilobed varieties, is not unfrequentlymet 

 with in and on the sides of deep hollow lanes. Grammitis Ceterach, though scarcely 

 truly belonging to the district, and not found on any of the rocks, yet flourishes on a 

 massive stone wall by the side of the road at Great Malvern ; and Mr. L. had also no- 

 ticed this fern growing in the interstices of an old brick wall at Forthampton. On 

 Rosebery Rock, north of Great Malvern, Mr. L. had gathered very singular specimens of 

 Scolopendrium vulgare, eighteen inches in length, with the extremities of the frond lobed 

 in a most remarkable multifid manner; the specimens are in the Society's herbarium 

 having been sent some time since. Pteris aquilina robes the bases and three parts up 

 most of the hills of the chain, and would be a great pest were it not mowed down eveiy 

 autumn, and stacked in ricks for litter by the humble economical farmer. It is per- 

 haps remarkable that Mr. L. had never yet been able to detect a single species of Ly- 

 copodium at any point or in any spot throughout the entire length of the chain or about 

 its base. 



Mosses. — The mosses have exercised a considerable agency in the creation of the 

 soil now upon the Malvern Hills ; doubtless indeed they were the primary originators 



