A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



which entirely replaces (E. Phellandrium in the district. The water buttercups include 

 Ranunculus heterophyllus, R. divaricatus, R. peltatus, R. foitans, and the pondweeds are 

 Potamogeton natans, P. Friesii, P. interrupts, P. pectinatus, P. zostertefolius, P. pusillus, P. 

 crispus and P. densus, but P. polygonifolius and P. alpinus appear to be absent. The canal gives 

 the sedges Carex paniculata, C. acuta, Eleocharis acicu/aris ; and the meadow crane's-bill 

 (Geranium pratense) is a not uncommon plant near the Ouse. There are few marshes or 

 bogs from a botanical point of view, since the undrained portion although wet is singularly 

 poor in uliginal vegetation, and is represented by such mesophytes as Carex vulpina and C. 

 flacca, Galium pa/ustre, G/yceria plicata and G. fluitans, Apium nodt/lorum, Juncus lampocarpus and 

 J. glaucus. 



There is a very small marsh near Winslow of a very different character, since it 

 resembles the rich marshes which occur at Headington in Oxfordshire and at Cothill and 

 Hinksey in Berkshire. As drainage has been already begun, it is probably doomed to 

 disappear in the not distant future. In it I was enabled to notice for the first time 

 as plants of Buckinghamshire the black bog-rush (Schcenus nigricans) and the rush (Juncus 

 obtusiflorus), and also the following interesting species, the butterwort (Pinguicula vu/garis), the 

 marsh helleborine (Epipactis pa/ustris), the marsh thistle (Cnicus pratensis), the sedges Carex 

 pulicaris, C. flava, C. Goodenowii, C. panicea, C. Hornschuchiana, the bog pimpernel (Anagallis 

 tenella), the fragrant orchid (Habenaria conopsea), and the bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), the 

 latter in an unusual station ; the milk-wort (Polygala vu/garis), the bedstraw Galium uliginosum, 

 while in close contiguity in a gravelly field grew the upright form of the soft clover (Trijolium 

 itriatum var. erectum) and the chickweed (Cerastium arvense). The railway banks near Swan- 

 bourn have the zig-zag clover (Trifolium medium), and in the brickyard near there are some 

 very fine examples of Lotus tenuis. 



On the railway banks near Hanslope there is a very abundant growth of a hawkweed, a 

 native of eastern and central Europe, namely Hieracium preealtum, and near it is another plant 

 which is either a hybrid of that species with H. Pilosella, or possibly H, pratense. Some short 

 distance away the yellow chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) is also abundantly naturalized for a 

 considerable distance, and nearer the border of Northamptonshire the gold of pleasure 

 (Camelina saliva) is plentiful, and other aliens such as Caucalis latifolia, Salvia verticillata, 

 Bromus arvensis and B. squarrosus, Chenopodium fidfolium and others have been found. 



At Castlethorpe the calamint (C. parvifolia) occurs, but it may be possibly a relic of 

 cultivation as it grows near Castle Close. Here too the fiddle dock (Rumex pulcher) and the 

 grass Poa compressa occur, and near Hanslope I added Carex pendula to the county many 

 years ago. Near Olney, where the limestone comes to the surface, the gypsophilous 

 grass Brachypodium pinnatum so abundant on the oolite in Oxfordshire, but so rare in this 

 county, is found. From Lavendon the wild everlasting pea (Lathyrus sylvestris) has been 

 recorded, and the grass-leaved pea (L. Nisso/ia) is found near Wavendon. 



2. THE OUZEL DISTRICT 



which is also in the main drainage of the Ouse, is so named from a small stream whose sources 

 are chiefly in the Dunstable Downs, one issuing from the chalk near the Beacon Hill between 

 Ivinghoe and Edlesborough, another nearPitstone Green, and there are several other feeders from 

 the Cretaceous rocks. Another tributary comes from the high ground of Cublington and 

 Stewkley (496 feet) and joins the chalk streams to the south of Leighton Buzzard, between 

 which place and Fenny Stratford it is reinforced by several streams coming from the western 

 side of the hills of Stewkley North End, Drayton Parslow and Mursley, while on the 

 east side the rich district of Brickhill and Woburn Sands also drain into it. A small brook 

 which rises in Bedfordshire near Ridgmount, and passes through Salford, Milton Keynes and 

 Broughton, joins the Ouzel near Willen, and the Ouzel itself shortly after enters the Ouse 

 near Newport Pagnell. 



The district is contained within the following limits : Starting from the place near Great 

 Linford station, where the Grand Junction Canal is near the Ouse, the separating line from 

 the Ouse district, which has been already described, passes from Newport Pagnell to the 

 Bedford county boundary at Broad Green, which is near North Crawley, following the county 

 boundary in a southernly direction to Wavendon, Linslade, and then by Edlesborough to Little 

 Gaddesden, where Hertfordshire takes the place of Beds, and the limit is the boundary of that 

 shire in its eccentric and arbitrary separating line, as it is traced across the Chilterns. The 

 boundary of the Ouzel district passes by Aldbury to the main line of the London and North- 



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