Effects of the Soil. 251 



Flora of a district, yet we might always be able, by its help and 

 that of the latitude, to give the typical plants. Close to the 

 chalk, the Forest possesses none of the chalk flowers. No bee- 

 orchis or its congeners, although so common on all the neigh- 

 bouring Wiltshire downs, bloom. No travellers'-joy trails 

 amongst its thickets, although every hedge in Dorsetshire, 

 just across the Avon, is clothed in the autumn with its 

 white fleece of seeds. No yellow bird's-nest (Monotropa 

 Hypopitys) shades itself under its beeches, though growing 

 only a few miles distant on the halk. 



Still, here there are some contradictions. The chalk-loving 

 yew appears to be indigenous. Several plants which we might 

 reasonably expect, as herb-Paris, the bird-nest orchis (Neottia 

 Nidus-avis), and the common mezereon (Daphne Mezereum), 

 are wanting. 



Owing to the want of stiff clay, no hornbeams grow in its 

 woods, except, perhaps, a few in one or two cold " bottoms." 

 No Solomon's seal or lilies of the valley whiten its dells. No 

 meadow-geranium waves its blue flowers on the banks of the 

 Avon.* 



On the other hand, the plants too truly tell the character 

 of the soil. In the spring the little tormentil shows its bright 

 blossoms, and the petty-whin grows side by side with the 

 furze, and the sweet mock-myrtle throws its shadow over the 

 streams. In the summer and autumn the blue sheep's-bit 

 scabious and the golden-rod bloom, with the three heathers. 

 In the bogs the round-leaved sundew is pearled with wet, and 



* In one place only in the Forest, on some waste ground at Alum 

 Green, have 1 seen this plant. 



KK 2 



