A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



BOTANICAL DISTRICTS 



Nottinghamshire lies wholly within the drainage area of the Trent, so that the usual 

 division of a county into river basins for botanical purposes is not possible in our case. The 

 districts here adopted are therefore based on the geological structure of the county, and this 

 division is a really natural one, for with the exception of the alluvial tracts bordering the 

 Trent and its tributary streams very little drift occurs to obscure the older deposits, and con- 

 sequently the surface soil is principally formed by the disintegration and decay in situ of the 

 underlying rocks. The wide differences in the chemical composition of the resulting soils 

 have of course a marked influence on the character of the flora of each formation. 



Leaving out of consideration the superficial (drift and alluvial) deposits, the formations 

 represented in Nottinghamshire are the Coal Measures, Permian, Trias (Bunter and Keuper), 

 Rhaetic, and Lower Lias. These form bands running partially or completely through the 

 county in a direction approximately north and south. 



The outcrop of the Coal Measures forms a band 16 miles long between Stapleford in 

 the south and Teversall in the north, and varying in width from 2 to about 4 miles. To 

 the east it is succeeded by the Permian or Magnesian Limestone, which forms a narrow band 

 running from Nottingham to the county boundary on the north a distance of about 32 miles. 

 At its maximum development it is about 4 miles in width, but for the most part is consider- 

 ably narrower. The sandstones and conglomerates of the Bunter, which follow, occupy a 

 much larger tract of land nearly 40 miles long by 7 or 8 in width over the greater part 

 of its extent, except in the immediate neighbourhood of Nottingham, where it is much 

 narrower. 



Quite half the area of the county is occupied by deposits of Keuper age, but as the 

 valley of the Trent lies almost wholly in this formation it is a good deal covered by alluvial 

 deposits. The Rhaetic shales form a band of insignificant extent along the eastern margin of 

 the Keuper. 



Finally, on the eastern and south-eastern border of the county for the southern two-thirds 

 of its length the Keuper is succeeded by the lower beds of the Lias, which attain their 

 maximum development south of Cotgrave and Cropwell Bishop. Two rather extensive out- 

 liers occur to the west of the main mass of the Lias in the extreme south of the county. 



The botanical districts adopted, four in number, are as follows : 



DISTRICT I 



This comprises the area formed by the outcrops of the Coal Measures and Permian rocks 

 on the western side of the county. It might seem at first sight that two such apparently 

 dissimilar formations should constitute separate districts, but the area occupied by the Coal 

 Measures is so small and its noteworthy plants so few in number that to make of it a separate 

 district would be to ascribe to this formation an importance altogether out of proportion to its 

 merits. Indeed, the Coal Measures can scarcely claim to possess a distinctive flora at all : not 

 a single species appears to be confined to their outcrop, and the few conspicuous plants that 

 do occur are equally common elsewhere. On the other hand, the Magnesian Limestone 

 possesses a large number of characteristic species, some of which are peculiar to it. Among 

 these the following may be mentioned, the species hitherto found only on this formation being 

 indicated by an asterisk : 



'Ranunculus Lenormandi, F. 



Schultz 



"Helleborus viridis, L. 

 'Aquilegia vulgaris, L. 

 *Arabis hirsuta, Scop. 



Reseda lutea, L. 



Helianthemum Chamaecistus, 

 Mill. 



Silene Cucubalus, Wib. 

 'Geranium sanguineum, L. 



Trifolium medium, L. 



Anthyllis Vulneraria, L. 



Geum rivale, L. 



Pamassia palustris, L. 

 *Ribes alpinum, L. 



Hippuris vulgaris, L. 

 'Bupleurum rotundifolium, L. 



Galium Mollugo, L. 



Erigeron acre, L. 



Inula Conyza, DC. 



Centaurea Scabiosa, L. 



Campanula Trachelium, L. 



latifolia, L. 



Anagallis tenella, L. 



Blackstonia perfoliata, Huds. 



Gentiana Amarella, L. 

 * baltica, Murb. 

 *Myosotis arvensis, Lam., 

 var. umbrosa, Bab. 



Lithospcrmum arvcnse, L. 



48 



Verbascum Thapsus, L. 

 'Linaria Elatina, Mill. 



viscida, Moench 

 Veronica montana, L. 

 Lathraea Squamaria, L. 

 Origanum vulgare, L. 

 Clinopodium Acinos, O. Kuntze 



'Cephalanthera ensifblia, Rich. 

 * pallens, Rich. 



Epipactis palustris, Crantz 



Orchis pyramidalis, L. 



ustulata, L. 

 *Ophrys muscifera, Huds. 



Habenaria conopsea, Benth. 

 Polygonatum multiflorum, All 



