A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



still exist in some of these localities. On Hartlebury Common Convolvulus 

 Soldamlla has been gathered, and Erodium maritimum occurs there and at 

 Habberley. The valley in which the Salwarpe runs from Droitwich to 

 the Severn at Haw^ford was probably an arm of the river of a similar 

 character, and in it is found a remarkable collection of maritime plants, 

 including Apium graveolens, Spergularia salina, Glaux maritima, and abun- 

 dantly on the banks of the river at Droitwich, Lepidium latifolium, which 

 are perhaps survivals of the former flora kept from disappearing by some 

 brackish quality in the water of the neighbourhood. 



Worcestershire possesses two considerable tracts of native woodland, 

 which have possibly never suffered more at the hand of man than 

 thinning and felling. The Randans and the nearly adjoining wood of 

 Pepperwood stretch from some three miles from north-east to south- 

 west in the neighbourhood of Bromsgrove, and Wyre or Bewdley Forest 

 covers a much more considerable tract of land in the north-west of the 

 county, extending over into Shropshire, Dowles Brook, which runs 

 through the forest, forming the county boundary. The latter wood is 

 composed nearly entirely of oaks {Quercus Robur) and scattered yews, but 

 possesses few large specimens, the timber being usually cut down as soon 

 as it grows to a size fit for poles. In Wyre Forest grew the historic sorb 

 tree, Pyrus domestica, possibly the only wild tree of the species in Britain. 

 This tree, noticed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 

 in 1678, and then old, continued to exist until 1862, when it was burned 

 down by a fire kindled by a vagrant at its foot. It had become very de- 

 crepid and was alive only at the ends of its gaunt branches, but it produced 

 flowers within a few years of its destruction. Grafts taken from it are 

 flourishing trees in the arboretum at Arley Castle near Bewdley. Wyre 

 Forest yields several plants not to be found in other parts of Worcester- 

 shire, including Cephalanthera ensifolia. Geranium sylvaticum, Pyrola fninor, 

 Rubus saxatilis, Spiranthes cestivalis, now probably extinct, and Thalictrum 

 minus. The undergrowth of Shrawley Wood, by the side of the Severn, 

 consists to a large extent of the small-leaved lime, Tilia parvifolia. In 

 the neighbourhood of Pershore are several large woods, and a considerable 

 amount of woodland, though in scattered portions, covers the hilly 

 district that forms a northern continuation of the Malvern range. In 

 the extreme east are the Slads and Yield Woods, and between them and 

 Evesham is Craycombe Hill and the wooded heights behind Wood- 

 norton. In the more southern portion of the county there is but Httle 

 woodland, nor are there any large woods in the extreme south-east. 

 About Halesowen deep ravines have been cut in the softer measures by 

 the numerous streams that descend from the hills, and for the most part 

 these are shaded by belts of woodland, which sometimes join on to large 

 expanses, as in the case of Ufmore Wood. In these dingles are Cam- 

 panula latifolia, Chrysosplenium alternifolium, Geum rivale and Paris 

 quadrifolia, pretty generally distributed. 



The Malvern Hills run parallel with the average course of the 

 Severn for a distance of nine miles, some four miles to the west of the 



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