BOTANY 



abounds near Beachy Head. In our hangers we have the brown bird's 

 nest {Neottia nidus-avis) and the tway blade [Listera ovata), and there 

 too we meet with the helleborines. The large white helleborine 

 {Cephalanthera grandifiora), known in Sussex as the egg orchis, a hand- 

 some species, is common ; the lesser white (C. ensif'olid) occurs near 

 Goodwood, but is rare ; the broad-leaved helleborine {Epipactis latifolid), 

 of purplish hue, is not uncommon westward. At Harting we have the 

 narrow-leaved helleborine (E. media), and the rare and beautiful violet 

 helleborine {E. violacea) at Stansted. We must not omit the pretty 

 green musk orchis [Herminium momrchis), which occasionally peeps up 

 amongst tall moss, as at Barlavington and Duncton. The latest flower- 

 ing species is the fragrant ladies' tresses [Spiranthes autumnalis). 



3. Plants of the Weald. — The Weald Clay, says Professor Hull, 

 forms a depressed tract of country between the elevated ground of the 

 centre and the ridges of the Lower Greensand and Chalk, which enclose 

 the Wealden area all round its circumference except along the eastern 

 coast-line from Beachy Head to Shakespeare's Cliff near Dover. The 

 Wealden area sinks down almost to the level of the high-water at 

 Pevensey. The breadth of the Weald is from five to ten miles, and 

 its length from thirty to forty miles. The Forest Ridge, which contains 

 St. Leonards Forest and Ashdown Forest, is that portion of the county 

 which, uniting with the Weald, forms the north-easterly division, stretch- 

 ing from Fairlight Down by Crowborough to St. Leonards Forest, and 

 terminating gradually in the western part of the county in the angle 

 formed by the sandhills of Petworth on the one side and by Black 

 Down and Leith Hill on the other. It is composed of the more elevated 

 portions of the sands and sandstones. The soil consists of a sandy loam, 

 or iron sandstone, or of a poor black vegetable sand upon a soft clay 

 marl. It is for the most part exceedingly barren. In Sussex the 

 existing forests of St. Leonards, Ashdown, Tilgate and Waterdown 

 are portions of the primeval forest of Anderida, which through the 

 Roman and Saxon eras remained entire, and is spoken of by Bede in 

 A.D. 731 as thick and inaccessible. At the time of the Conquest its 

 dense woods were beyond the pale of the Norman survey, as a glance 

 at the excellent map prefixed to the Sussex Domesday, published by the 

 Sussex Archsological Society, plainly proves. A view of the Weald 

 from the Devil's Dyke shows us how much of woodland still remains. 

 This, together with its heaths, commons and bogs present many 

 interesting localities to the botanist. As affecting its vegetation, it may 

 be noted that in the Wealden district the temperature is more variable, 

 and the rainfall heavier, than that along the coast, which is due mainly to 

 the large extent of forest land and the fact that the South Downs rise in 

 the track of the rain clouds. And here, by the way, it may be noted 

 that while more bright sunshine is registered in the south of England 

 than in any other part of the kingdom, according to the latest records, 

 Sussex seems the sunniest county in the country, a circumstance which 

 doubtless has a favourable influence on its flora. 

 I 49 7 



