A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



NOTES ON THE BOTANICAL DISTRICTS, WITH LISTS OF THE RARER 

 PLANTS IN EACH DISTRICT 



I. The West Rother 



This district, comprising the westernmost part of the county, is bounded on the east by a 

 stream from the Surrey border, which flows by Shillinglee, Kirdford and Wisborough Green 

 into the Arun, from which point the boundary runs along the west bank of the Arun to the 

 sea. It is drained north of the Downs by the West Rother, a tributary of the Arun which 

 it joins near Pulborough, and south into the Channel by two independent streams, the Lavant 

 and the Ems. These are intermittent. The Lavant is usually dry during the summer. 

 The Ems, which generally begins to flow in February, continues to carry down a considerable 

 body of water until late in autumn. 



In the northern part of this district we have the clay of the Weald, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Midhurst and Petworth much of the greensand, with large tracts of boggy heath, 

 common, and considerable woodland. Here we meet with many of our ferns, including 

 Lomaria spicant, Aiplenium TrichomaneSy the lovely lady fern, Athyr'mm Filix fcemina, with its 

 var. Rha-ticufn, Ccsterach officinarum, sometimes in abundance, Lastrea Thelypterh rare, and 

 L. Oreopter'ts local, L. Spinulosa and Osmunda regain^ which in a bend of the Rother I once 

 found six feet in height. In this part of Sussex this latter plant is now becoming very rare, 

 and one cannot give localities for it. Unfortunately our scarcer ferns are now of marketable 

 value and the rapacity of collectors and dealers appears to be increasing. Midhurst, GrafFhani, 

 and Duncton Common with their silver sand and boggy spots afford some interesting species, 

 as Gent'uuui Pneumonantbe, Filogo minima, Eriophorum vaginatuvi and Malaxii paludosa, and 

 by the Rother we find the lovely flowering rush, Butomus umbellatus. We next come 

 to the chalk with its plants already adverted to, and finally to the coast, which in this district 

 presents features different from any other in the county. The estuaries of the extreme 

 western portion are bounded by large tracts of moorland, some of which are now reclaimed. 

 The Manhood and Thorney Island are on the London Clay, and beyond the latter is the 

 vanishing islet of Pilsey, soon to be submerged in the Channel. 



The rarer plants are :' — 



1 With respect to the districts I have used the term ' r.irer ' r.ithcr th.in ' peculi.ir ' to them, beciuse 

 species formerly so considered have recently been found elsewhere in the county, and doubtless as 

 research goes on this will continue to be the case. Plants printed in italics are naturalized or not quite 

 wild. An asterisk before the specific name signifies that the plant m.iy probably be extinct. Habitats 



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