1859.] BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION. 279 



arduous occupations of town life, an occasional plunge into the 

 secluded recesses of the forest must be considered one of the 

 choicest privileges of the town-dweller. New life is given to the 

 feelings in these interesting and beautiful solitudes, peopled as 

 they are with myriads of mysterious creations. Strange and 

 agreeable perfumes, the essences of Nature's floral laboratory, 

 steal on the senses, while the luxuriant foliage of the wood, and 

 the bankside, — all these must needs exert a most attractive in- 

 fluence upon the mind, especially of those who are accustomed 

 to the daily contemplation of tall smoky chimneys and pestife- 

 rous emanations of sewer-' traps,' or the too often tainted atmo- 

 sphere of the manufactory. 



Amongst the pleas for such a pleasure, calculated as it is to 

 give tone to the hardly-wrought brain, stands unsurpassed that 

 of the naturalist, who may be said to be ever at home in the 

 forest and in the field. 



From one side of these woods, placed on an elevation, a com- 

 plete panorama meets the view, with the distant Malvern Hills 

 on the horizon. 



The spot is unusually rich in some of our choicest plants. As 

 we pass from Stoke, a complete change becomes observable in 

 the Flora. The locality of Trench, in a geological point of view, 

 belongs to the secondary formation — the oolite and lias groups. 

 The soil is calcareous, and all along the lanes in the vicinity are 

 seen heaps of lias with fossil shells imbedded in great abundance. 

 Some of the fields are literally covered with the wild Carrot and 

 Parsnip, the beautiful Carduus nutans, or Musk-thistle, and others; 

 and many choice plants, as Chlora perfoliata, the Astragalus Gly- 

 cyphyllos, or Sweet Milk- vetch, sometimes also termed the Li- 

 quorice-vetch, grew here in great abundance, as do also Malva 

 moschata, the Musk-mallow, and Anthyllis Vulneraria, or Kidney- 

 vetch, or sometimes Ladies'-fingers, doubtless from the peculiarly 

 elegant and graceful delicacy of the divisions of the flower-head. 

 The gay little Helianthemum vulgare, or Rock-rose, completely 

 lines the bank, rich in its golden glory ; and in the open were 

 also observed Hehninthia echioides (the Ox-tongue), Poterium 

 Sanguisorba (the Salad Burnet), Euphorbia exigua, or Dwarf 

 Spurge, Medicago sativa (Lucerne), and the gorgeous yellow 

 Bed-straw {Galium verum) fills the shallow dyke. In the wood 

 itself creeps here and there Lysimachia Numnmlaria, the Money- 



