249 
Some Observations on the Flora of Faversham and its Neighbour- 
hood. By the Rev. Hueu A. Stowet1, Cor. Memb. B.S8.L. 
The country which surrounds Faversham is in many respects 
a remarkably favourable district for the study of Botany. Within 
the limits which I propose to embrace in this short contribution 
to the history of its Flora,—namely, the tract lying between the 
Blean Woods and Seasalter on the east, and Teynham and Nor- 
ton on the west, between the Swale on the north and Throwley, 
Newnham, and Perry Hill on the south,*—we have many and 
great varieties of soil and feature. On its surface it presents to 
us marsh-lands, salt-marsh, chalk, gravel, clayey loam, and a 
small bit of pebbly beach. The strip of land which borders the 
Swale, a strait or arm of the sea, forms the northernmost portion 
of this district, varying in breadth from one and a half to two 
aud a half miles; this, with the exception of the beach at Sea- 
salter, is all level marsh-land, for the most part drained by a net- 
work of broad dykes, and affording a rich pasturage to numerous 
herds and flocks. It is guarded from the encroachments of the 
sea by a series of sea-walls ; two salt-water rivers, or rather creeks, 
intersect it, known as Faversham Creek, which runs up into the 
town and is navigable at high water for vessels of light burden, 
and Oare Creek (otherwise Oare Stray), which les about a mile 
to the north-west of the other. What I have called salt-marsh 
comprises the narrow margins of the creeks and of the Swale, 
for the most part lying outside the sea-walls. To the south of 
the marsh-lands the substratum is apparently everywhere chalk, 

i, 
for it crops out through the gravel at Syndale and elsewhere, and 
there are chalkpits in the loam as at Ewell.t The gravel is of 
two kinds,—a sandy red gravel, and a collection of pebbles ex- 
actly resembling a sea-beach. This last covers an isolated hill 
of considerable height im the south-east corner of the district de- 
fined above. The tract overlaid with the former consists chiefly 
of two dwarf hill-ridges, separated by an intervening valley of 
elayey loam ; this loam forms a belt between the marsh-lands and 
the chalk tract, broader to the east of Faversham than to the 
* The furthest point is scarcely five miles from Faversham. 
+ I should like to tell my readers (if they do not already know it), before I plunge 
deeper into the mire, that Iam no geologist: never mind the names, if they can 
only understand what I mean. 
NES. VOL. I. 2K 
