BOTANY 



in this direction the streams run into the Rea, while Yardley, the extreme 

 north-easterly parish of Worcestershire, drains into the Cole. A little to 

 the south are the large reservoirs connected with the Birmingham Canal, 

 whose waters run into the Arrow, and so into the Avon 



On the right bank of the Severn its most northern tributary is 

 Dowles Brook, which divides Worcestershire from Shropshire. Follow- 

 ing up Dowles Brook, the water-parting dividing it from the basin of 

 the Teme is arrived at, on the other side of which the Rea flows into 

 that river at Newnham Bridge. Following down the course of the 

 Teme, which runs in a most picturesque valley, at Eastham, on the right 

 bank, some rare orchids have been observed. The tributary brooks in 

 this district are highly charged with lime, which in places is deposited 

 as masses of travertine, so plentiful at Southstone Rock and elsewhere 

 that it forms a useful building material in the neighbourhood. The soil 

 of this district appears favourable to the growth of orchidaceous plants, 

 and the following have occurred, some very abundantly : Epipactis 

 latifolia, E. palustris, Habenaria bifolia, H. conopsea, H. viridis, Neottia nidus- 

 avis. Orchis pyramidalis, O. Morio, Ophrys apifera, O. muscifera and Spir- 

 anthes autumnalis. Just outside the county boundary on the Herefordshire 

 side of Sapey Brook, which runs into the Teme, a single plant of Epi- 

 pogum aphyllum was gathered in 1854, unknown before to the flora of 

 Britain, but the plant has not again rewarded the most diHgent search in 

 the locality. Near here, and as close to the county boundary, but in 

 Herefordshire, grows Eryngium campestre. 



On the left, or east, bank of the Teme rise the Abberley Hills 

 reaching a height of over 800 feet, and possessing quite a sub-alpine 

 appearance ; and to the south of them is Woodbury Hill, nearly the 

 same height. But these hills are curiously barren botanical ground, and 

 little of any interest has been observed in the locality. To the north 

 of Abberley is a little tract of carboniferous measures forming the Pensax 

 coalfield, which also is not a prolific botanical district. At Knightsford 

 Bridge the Teme breaks through a ridge of high land, leaving Ankerdine 

 Hill on the left bank and Rosebury Rock, a mass of Permian breccia, on 

 the right. Henceforward the Teme runs through broad meadows to its 

 confluence with the Severn below Worcester, receiving on its way two 

 tributary brooks — Leigh Brook, coming up the from south-west and the 

 high land which forms the continuation northwards of the Malvern 

 chain, and falling into the Teme at Leigh ; and Laughern Brook, which 

 for some miles pursues a parallel course to the Severn, often not a mile 

 away from that river, and falls into the Teme at Powick Bridge. 



In the northern part of its course through the county the Severn, in 

 comparatively quite recent times, flowed over a wider bed than at 

 present contains it, and this at a time when its waters were at least 

 brackish. Lagoons seem to have been left in many places by the 

 retreating waters, which were first marshes and are now dry sandy wastes 

 or valleys. Habberley Valley, near Kidderminster, is a well-marked in- 

 stance, and of the same nature is Hartlebury Common. Maritime plants 



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