iv. NATIVE PLANTS. ROADS. 53 



Heath, may have deserved the name, but cultivation has obliterated 

 many marks of natural selection and human neglect. 



One of the heath-plants, Calluna vulgaris, is mentioned by 

 Walker, in his ( Flora of Oxfordshire,' as growing at Eynsham 

 Heath, a gravelly soil ; another, Erica tetralix, at Binfield Heath, 

 a sandy tract beyond the scope of my examination ; and a third, 

 Erica cinerea, at Checkendon, south-east of Wallingford, on the 

 sandy covering of the chalk. 



Orchidacese, favoured by the calcareous soil, are unusually plen- 

 tiful. Most of the British species are found within the drainage 

 of the Thames, and specially in the oolitic and cretaceous areas. 

 Among these the musk orchis, the fly, bee, and spider ophrys, 

 lady's-traces, and the bird's-nest, twayblade, may be noted. 



Among water-plants which add beauty to the Cherwell and the 

 Oxford Canal now less disturbed by boats than formerly and 

 to the many half-deserted channels in the Vale of Thames, we may 

 notice the water-lilies, bog-bean, and feather-foil. Among meadow- 

 plants, the snake-lily and the snow-flake claim attention, as beau- 

 tiful dwellers in the Vale of Cherwell and Thames: the former 

 at Standlake above Oxford, as well as in Magdalen and Cowley 

 Meadows, and near Reading; the latter below Oxford, and near 

 Reading. 



The distribution of plants in the Oxford district will probably 

 engage the attention of Professor Lawson. 



Ancient Roads. The part of Britain of which Oxford is the 

 centre fell at an early period of the Roman invasion under the 

 sway of the regular provincial government. Oxford was unknown, 

 even in the Trojan tradition which amused the historians of later 

 days d : but the great camp on the Churn speedily became the 

 centre of Roman influence, the point of convergence of Roman 

 roads, the abode of luxurious citizens, decorated with baths, temples, 

 and amphitheatres. Durocornovium, Corinium, Corin, Caer-Corin, 

 Corin-Ceaster, Cyrencester, is on the track of the great Fosse Way 

 from Moridunum (Seaton) on the Dorsetshire coast, through Aquae 

 Solis (Caer-Badon, Bath) to Ratse (Leicester) and Lindum (Lincoln). 

 This famous way was crossed at Cirencester by a conspicuous road 



d Brian Twyn, in his Antiquitatis Academise Oxoniensis Apologia (1608), adopts 

 Greekelade (Cricklade), and Latinlade (Lechlade), as the pre-Oxonian seats of elo- 

 quence and literature in Britain ! 



