BOTANY 



to Botolph Claydon, then by Hogshaw and the eastern side of Quainton Hill by Oving and 

 Whitchurch. Here it turns in a north-easterly direction to Dunton, Stewkley Dean and 

 Mursley. Then it again crosses the London and North-Western line about a mile east of 

 Swanbourn station and passes between Whaddon and Bletchley to Denbigh Hall and Simpson, 

 where the Grand Junction Canal forms the line of demarcation, thence to Great Linford 

 station, where it reaches the main stream of the Ouse, which is the limit of the district, to 

 Newport Pagnell, where it receives the Ouzel stream. From Newport Pagnell the road from 

 that place to the county boundary of Bedfordshire near Broad Green is followed ; and the 

 eastern limit of the district is the county of Bedford, the county boundary of which passes by 

 Astwood and Olney, and then the county boundary of Northamptonshire replaces it by Salcey 

 Forest and Hartwell. Near the latter place the river Tove, which rises from the high 

 ground near Preston Capes, in Northamptonshire, is itself a tributary of the Ouse. 

 From Hartwell the Tove itself becomes the county boundary and flows past Grafton 

 Regis, Castlethorpe and Cosgrove, in its course having cut its way down to the Upper 

 Lias Clay, and enters the Ouse which then in turn separates the two counties westwards 

 to Thornton. Here the county boundary, which is the border of the Ouse district, 

 is an arbitrary line which passes to the east of Leckhampstead and Lillingstone, and 

 includes a small portion of the once extensive forest of Whittlewood or Whittlebury, where 

 there are extensive deposits of Blue Clay drift, and traverses a secluded and well wooded part of 

 the county by Chapel Green and Biddlesden ; a small stream here forms the county boundary 

 to a spot adjacent to Brackley, where our boundary line rejoins the starting point opposite to 

 Evenley. 



The Ouse district as comprised within the bounds just described consists of a flat or a 

 gently undulating country, the highest point near Oving above sea level attaining only to 520 

 feet in altitude ; the highest part of the Whittlebury neighbourhood is about 510 feet, while 

 Whaddon Chase is about 450 feet. But by far the larger part of the district is between 200 

 and 300 feet, and some portion bordering the Ouse near Olney is not more than 1 70 feet above 

 sea level. The area is almost entirely under cultivation and there are extensive tracts of 

 pasture land, and still more monotonous agrarian fields, but there are vestiges of woodland in 

 the north-west, although the greater part of the sylvan portions have long ago been disafforested, 

 but we are able to read its former history by the occurrence of wood anemones and bluebells 

 in the hedgerows. Near Westbury there is a wild bushy common where a very rare and local 

 species of bramble (Rubus pubescens) grows, and it is especially interesting as it more closely 

 approaches the original German type of R. pubescens than any other plant hitherto observed in 

 Britain. Although clayey there is a plentiful growth of the woolly-headed thistle (Cnicus 

 eriophorus). The marsh scorpion-grass (Myosotis cespitosa) and the bur-reed (Sparganium neglectum) 

 grow in a pond in the vicinity. The umbelliferous plant Pimpinella major is plentiful in the 

 woods and bushy hedgerows hereabouts, and in damp roadsides the grass Festuca arundinacea 

 occurs. The hedges occasionally, as at Westbury and Lillingstone, have the barberry (Berberis 

 vulgaris) as well as the spindle-tree (Euonymus europ&us) ; in a wet ditch at Westbury and also 

 near Adstock the peppermint (Mentha piperita) occurs ; the coppices often abound with the 

 grass Calamagrostis epigeios, and sometimes, especially on stiff clay soils, have the beautiful sedge 

 (Carex pendula) and the great horsetail (Equisetum maximum), while very locally near Lilling- 

 stone the great throat-wort (Campanula latifolia) is found. By the Black Pit Pond in Stowe 

 Park, where the moon-wort (Botrychium Lunaria) was once found, there is a plentiful growth 

 of the bur marigold (Bidens cernua), a very rare plant in the district in which B. trtpartita is the 

 prevailing form. At Westbury the spleenworts Asplenium Trichomanes and A. Ruta-muraria 

 are found, but ferns are very scarce in the district ; even the bracken (Pteris aquilina], is almost 

 absent from the area. Nearer the Ouse, as at Buffer's Holt where the oolite was formerly 

 quarried, there are some more interesting species, and the local Gentiana germanica and the 

 thorow-wax (Bupleurum rotundi folium) have been reported. The relics of Whittlebury Forest 

 contain the mint (Mentha longifolia) in an assuredly native situation. 



At Westbury Common when the gravel drift is sufficiently porous to allow of the occur- 

 rence, the ling (Calluna Erica), a very rare plant of the district, and also the hawkweed (Hieracium 

 umbellatum), the St. John's wort (Hypericum pu/chrum), the heath stitchwort (Stellaria graminea), 

 the heath bedstraw (Galium hercynicum) and the grasses Aira pracox, Deschampsia flexuosa and 

 Agrostis canina are found. At Old Stratford the riverside affords the sweet flag (Acorus Calamus), 

 the reed-mace (Typha angustifo/ia),the flowering rush (Butomus umbeHatus),a.nd nearer Castlethorpe 

 the bittercress (Cardamine amara), the grass Catabrosa aquatica, the meadow rue (Thalictrum 

 favum), and abundance of the water dropworts (Enanthe fistulosa and (E.jhtviatiKs, the latter of 



43 



