BOTANY 



GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTY 

 WITH RELATION TO THE FLORA 



THE outline of Worcestershire is exceedingly irregular, and not 

 only is this the case, but several detached portions lie outside 

 the main body as islands in neighbouring counties, the largest 

 of these being Dudley in the north and Shipston and Blockley 

 in the south-east. The county may not inaptly be compared in shape 

 to that of a vine-leaf, of which a few fragments have been broken off 

 and scattered near it. And this simile is the more apt because with 

 slight exceptions the whole of the county lies in the watershed of the 

 Severn, which river, running roughly from north to south, divides it 

 into two unequal parts ; and if we place the leaf with the stem down- 

 wards, the venation may roughly represent the tributary streams. Those 

 portions of the county which are not within the basin of the Severn are 

 the extreme north-east, including the north-eastern slopes of the Lickey, 

 where the water runs into the Rea, and so into the Trent ; and the 

 detached portions in the south-east, which are drained by the Evenlode, 

 and are in the valley of the Thames. Another peculiarity may be 

 noticed. Nearly all round, with the exception of the north-west, where 

 the Severn enters the county, the north-east, where the county borders 

 upon Warwickshire, and the south-west, where the Severn leaves it, the 

 margin is higher than the centre ; so we may carry our simile further, 

 and place our vine-leaf in a saucer, parts of the lip of which have been 

 broken away. 



While the central portion of the county, the wide vale of the 

 Severn, consists of marl overlaid in places with gravelly drift, the higher 

 land towards the margins is mostly of different geological formations. 

 On the west is the long range of the Malvern Hills, rising to the height 

 of 1,394 feet, and composed of plutonic rock with Silurian deposits 

 on their western sides. The county boundary runs for the most part 

 along the summits of these hills, but extends sometimes down the 

 western slopes. Towards Abberley in the north the Malvern range 

 meets the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire, on which is situated the 

 district towards Tenbury in the north-west of the county. To the east 

 of Abberley is an extent of New Red Sandstone stretching out to Clent, 

 where the Clent Hills, composed of Permian breccias and sandstones, rise 

 to a height of over i,ooo feet, and are bounded on the north by the coal 

 measures, through which the Silurian rocks of Dudley protrude. Hence 

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