1859.] BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM CHESHIRE. 347 



part several very stunted plants of Chlora perfoliata, rather un- 

 expected in such a place. 



Our most successful day^s botanizing was in the direction of 

 Marstou, a mile or two from Over, on the road to Hartford. 



We walked across several fields and past some cottages, turning 

 down a lane or bye-path, which led to a broomy, sandy, banky, very- 

 dry, open pasture, where the Sheep^s Scabious {Jasione montana) 

 flourished in great luxuriance. This was accompanied with the 

 never failing Foxglove, the Harebell of Scotland, only just be- 

 ginning to flower, and the plants usually seen on such situations 

 and soils. 



In a purling, clear rivulet, that trotted along under these 

 shady banks, the usual water plants abounded. Among these 

 were observed Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, and my friend said 

 the alternate-leaved species also was found there : very likely, for 

 in such parts it is usually found. Passing along the wood, through 

 which there is a good path, we reached a larger stream, and in the 

 marsh through which this passes there were large colonies of 

 Scirpus sylvaticus. Many of the examples, speaking within bounds, 

 were two yards high. The Bog Strawberry, as it is called in some 

 parts, though better known by its Linnsean name Comarum pa- 

 lustre, and in more recent times recognized under Potentilla, as 

 P. Comarum, was particularly fine here. 



This is one of the very commonest plants of Cheshire and 

 Lancashire; not in bogs merely, as in some remote parts of 

 Surrey and the south of England, but in the pasture-fields, in 

 ponds, and in ditches. 



Other common marsh plants flourished here, such as Spar- 

 ganium, Angelica sylvestris', and Iris Pseudacorus, the Yellow 

 Flag. 



On the adjoining pastures the common Lady's-mantle {Alche- 

 milla vulgaris), the Hest-harrow {Ononis repens?), and Orchis 

 m,aculata were plentiful. I never saw banks more likely to yield 

 the rarer Orchids, such as Habenaria viridis, Orchis Morio, etc. 

 We searched them most carefully, and never saw on them a trace 

 of any Orchis except the one already mentioned ; this one, how- 

 ever, abounded. 



On a bank, under a garden- or orchard-hedge, my companion 

 discovered fine plants of Dipsacus pilosus. If this were an orna- 

 mental, popular plant, we should have inferred that it owed its 



