BOTANY 



charmingly productive of a similar rich sylvan flora. It should be 

 mentioned that Arenaria uliginosa is a plant only found on the Durham 

 border on Widdy Bank, and it has no other locality in Great Britain. 

 Potentilla fruticosa, with its characteristic bushy growth and pretty yellow 

 flowers, which grows abundantly lower down the stream by the Whet- 

 stone Sill, is found also plentifully on Cronkley Scar, but is known in no 

 other locality in England except sparingly in Cumberland and West- 

 morland. This Whetstone Sill, a flat piece of ground where Langdon 

 Beck and Harwood Beck unite with the main stream a mile above High 

 Force, is a famous botanical ground. Here are first seen the rare species 

 of hawkweed, Hieracium crocatum, gothicum, and corymbosum, and the 

 tea-leaved willow [Salix phyliclfolid) also grows here. The very rare 

 spring gentian, the lovely deep blue Gentiana verna of the Swiss 

 mountains, is to be gathered in plenty about Widdy Bank Fell and in 

 many places on the high limestone pastures. At High Force, five miles 

 below Cauldron Snout the river again contracts into a very narrow 

 channel between high basaltic cliffs, and the water leaps over a precipice 

 with a sheer fall of 70 feet. Birch, beech, elm, and alders spring from 

 the fissures of the dark, smooth-faced cliffs of basalt, and magnificent 

 groups of remarkably fine spruce trees above help to complete a striking 

 picture, with the purple heather-clad fell commanding the background. 

 Weird forms of junipers make a conspicuous feature here and for some 

 distance up the stream along the strath, among the fallen boulders. Here 

 again Potentilla fruticosa grows abundantly, and extends as far down as 

 Middleton, where the basalt comes to an end. Many of the rarer plants 

 of the Widdy Bank plateau get carried down by the stream to a much 

 lower level, and the luxuriant woods which extend for a considerable 

 distance below High Force thus continue to furnish many rare floral 

 beauties dispersed along the rocky banks of the stream. The lily of the 

 valley [Convallaria majalis) and the herb-paris {Paris quadrifolid) hide in 

 the cool recesses of the woods near High Force, and the autumn-flowering 

 crocus [Colchicum autumnale) is a specially rare plant appearing opposite 

 Egglestone. On approaching High Force the upper part of Teesdale 

 loses its distinctively wild moorland character, and plantations of spruce 

 and firs with other well-grown trees appear, giving a much more 

 cultivated aspect. Extensive fir-plantations reach to the top of the moor 

 at Egglestone ; the rare marsh orchid {Malaxis paludosd) has a well- 

 established home on the banks of the Egglesburn, and the cordate 

 t way-blade {Lister a cor data) may also be found near the same spot. 

 Below Egglestone the Tees valley, and below Wolsingham the Wear 

 valley, gradually widen as these rivers emerge from the highlands of the 

 western parts of the county and flow through the less elevated central 

 regions. The high fells still extending between these points and further 

 north now rapidly decline in level. A sinuous line from Barnard Castle 

 through Witton-le-Wear to Wolsingham and then northwards indicates 

 roughly the boundary east of which the coal measures are met with, 

 overlaid for the most part with boulder clay. The principal collieries 

 I 41 6 



