1862.] MALVERN BOTANY. 183 



Flora, as it has been called, when the climate of Britain was gene- 

 rally of a much more severe character than at present. Several 

 Saxifrages and a few other alpine plants, now left as relics on 

 the summits of the Scottish Alps, and numerous on the sea-shores 

 of the Polar regions in the present day, are supposed to testify 

 to a time when a rigid climate was the character of countries 

 now in the temperate region ; while it is also inferred that those 

 lofty heights were then lifted above the Northern primteval seas, 

 if not so elevated above the ocean level as they now are. But 

 no remnant of a Polar vegetation exists on the Malvern Hills, 

 and no plant remains indicative of an earlier state of things than 

 the present aspect of this part of the globe. Hence the infer- 

 ence must be, that these eminences never for any length of time 

 ascended into loftier regions of the atmosphere than they now 

 do. Certainly, no existing vegetation at present here suggests 

 the idea. 



Grasses and Mosses of the Malvern Hills. 



Contending for dominion with the fine-leaved Grasses — especi- 

 ally those of the genera Anthoxanthum, Agrostis, Aira, Festuca, 

 and Avena — which probably ever since the rude Celts established 

 themselves in Britain, have been nibbled by sheep upon these 

 breezy heights, Cryptogamic vegetation abounds; and has in 

 the course of ages filled up all the gaps and inequalities of the 

 hills. The growth of Mosses, especially, combined with imbral ac- 

 tion year after year, has at length caused such an accumulation of 

 soil that the rocks are in many places hidden by this soft ver- 

 dant inundation, and cultivation gradually creeps up the decli- 

 vities, and might be extended abmost to the extreme height of 

 the chain, which is but 144i feet, though it is to be hoped that 

 this will never take place. It can hardly be doubted, then, that 

 combined with the disintegration of the brittle and baked rocks, 

 ]\Iosses have been the chief originators of the soil upon these 

 hills. In proof of this it may be well to extract the following 

 passage from ' The Botany of the Malvern Hills,^ a work of de- 

 tailed research to which I have alluded previously : — 



" The Lichens have been generally considered the first pio- 

 neers of vegetation, but their efforts to create a humus for the 

 nourishment of other plants are but trifling when compared with 

 the economical powers of the Mosses. To test this by experi- 



