1859.] BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM CHESHIRE. 245 



Spergulai'ia marina. In other parts the salt had acted as a 

 manure, and strong plants of the Dock genus. Fat-hen, Rag- 

 weed, and Thistle-kinds abounded. Plants that grow in a nitro- 

 genous soil flourished here in luxuriance and undisturbed, but of 

 rare plants or of plants indicative of a sea-side situation we saw 

 none. 



We next took the western shore of the large piece of water 

 formed by the subsidence of the ground, and found this also 

 barren of results. The subterranean water only is salt, and it 

 is pumped up at too high a cost to be suffered to escape and 

 form lakes, or even bogs, on the surface. The water of this 

 newly-formed lake is derived from the Weever and the neigh- 

 bouring drainage, and is as free from salt as its margin is from 

 saline vegetation. In the water near the shore we observed the 

 flowering Rush, Butomus umbellatus, not a common plant any- 

 where. 



This was but indifferent success on, as we believed, ground 

 hitherto untrodden by botanist's foot. StiU there is good bota- 

 nizing ground even near Over, but it does not lie by the road- 

 sides. 



On the face of one of the steep hills that bound the south 

 side of the Weever, there is a deep glen, or what in the chalk- 

 downs would be called a ' comb,' narrow at the bottom, with very 

 steep flanks entirely covered with trees, bushes, and luxuriant 

 vegetation, an excellent cover for game. Into this tangled, woody 

 dell we entered, not being afraid of the gamekeeper, for "we had 

 no evil thoughts against the gentle creatures of his care. Here 

 we discovered a considerable number of interesting plants, of 

 which the following is a sample. 



We give the precedence to the lovely Wood Vetch, Vicia syl- 

 vatica, not because it was the rarest of these pretty flowers, but 

 because it was by far the most abundant. I have seen it in the 

 south-west of England, on both sides of the Bristol Avon, also in 

 Wales and in Scotland, but I never saw it in greater luxuriance 

 and beauty than in this woody ravine at Winsford. 



Its elegantly- divided leaves, its large, drooping clusters of 

 flowers, its graceful habit, climbing over the lower vegetation 

 and festooning the more prominent shrubs and trees, were more 

 easily admired and appreciated than described. To convey any 

 idea of the loveliness of this bit of sylvan and floral beauty, the 



