BOTANY 



wort (Senecio campestus], the parasitic Tbesium bumifusum, the eyebrights 

 E. Kerneri, E. gracilis and E. nemorosa, the orchids Orchis ustu/afa, 

 Herminium Monorcbis, Ophrys apifera and Habenaria viridis. The pasque 

 flower (Anemone Pulsatilla] is local, but the horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis 

 comosa) and the rock-rose (Helianthemum Chamcecistus] and the scabious 

 (Scabiosa Columbaria) are abundant. In one locality the purple horseshoe 

 vetch (Astragalus danicus] occurs. The grasses Bromus erectus, Bracby- 

 podium pinnatum, Kaeleria, Avena pubescens and A. pratensis are common. 

 The juniper is rather, and the bedstraw (Galium sy/vestre) very local. 

 In the woods and hedges on the chalk we shall find the white-beam 

 tree (Pyrus Aria], the buckthorn (Rbamnus catbarticus), the cornel 

 (Cornus sanguinea), the wayfaring tree (Viburnum Lantana), the yew 

 (Taxus baccata), the spurge laurels (Daphne Laureola and D. Mezereuni), 

 the holly (Ilex Aquifolium)., and the beech is a prevailing tree. 



In and about these woods, especially on sunny banks, the violet 

 (Viola hirtd) is a conspicuous feature, and in such places the rare orchids 

 0. Simla and 0. militaris have been found. The bear's foot and stinking 

 hellebore (Helleborus viridis and H. faetidus] occur, and the orchids 

 Ophrys muscifera, Epipactis vio/acea, Habenaria bifolia, Cephalanthera 

 pallens and Neottia Nidus-avis grow as well as the yellow birds' nest 

 (Monotropa], the poisonous deadly nightshade (Atropa Belladonna], the 

 butcher's broom (Rascus acu/eatus), where it was first noticed as a British 

 plant, the wood barley (Elymus europceus), the wall lettuce (Lactuca 

 mura/is), the St. John's wort (Hypericum montanum), the tutsan (H. 

 Androscemum) , the stinking gladdion (Iris fcetidissima] , and the wood-rush 

 (Juncoides or Luzu/a Forsteri), as well as very locally the tooth-wort 

 (Dentaria or Cardamine bulbifera), and the wood forget-me-not (Myosotis 

 syhatica). This by no means exhausts the flora of the chalk formation, 

 but such species are chiefly selected which appear to be influenced by 

 the surface soil. 



Over a large portion of the county coloured as Chalk in the 

 geological maps, and where chalk does exist at a moderate depth, the 

 actual surface is overspread by a stiff red clay full of flints, known as 

 ' clay with flints,' and this deposit gives to the soil and what grows upon 

 it a different character from that which prevails where the chalk rises 

 to the surface, and this too holds true of the deposits of the sandy clay 

 known as ' brick-earth,' which also occurs over considerable areas. On 

 these more impervious soils we find extensive tracts of woodland where 

 the meadow saffron (Colchicum autumna/e), the spiked star of Bethlehem 

 (Ornitbogalum pyrenaicum) and the Solomon's seal (Polygonatum multifloruni) 

 are found. The dry valleys in the chalk country often contain a spurious 

 gravel made up of broken flints, and sometimes a thin bed of clay spread 

 over these troughs. In such situations the silvery leaved Potentilla 

 Anserina is often very abundant, and may be seen for a considerable 

 distance away. By walking across the belt of Chalk from Wantage to 

 Newbury or UfEngton to Hungerford, or from Ilsley to Theale, the 

 peculiar character of the Chalk formation can be well seen. The 



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