656 REVIEWS. [December, 



sylvan sceneiy, bounded in the distance by the basaltic Clee Hills and the 

 Shropshire Wrekin, and its dingles watered by rambling brooks, where — 



' Half-hidden fi-om the world besides, 

 Sweet hermit Natui'e in the woodland hides.' 



Among those assembled for forest adventure we observed Edwin Lees, 

 Esq., F.L.S., Vice-President of the Club, W. Matthews, Esq., F.G.S., 

 Honorary Secretary ; the Eevs. J. H. Thompson, C. Glyn, W. H. Helm, 

 John H. Whiteley (Pedmore), and Alfred Bromfield; Dr. Strange, Messrs. 

 J. D. JefFery, Edward Gillam, T. Baxter, H. Lines, J. De Poix D. Tyi-el, 

 — Eobertson, J. B. Piercey, E. Gardner (Kidderminster), G. E. Eoberts, 

 E. BaU (Bewdley), G. Jordan, Haywood, Gilbert, Pouting, Cooke, etc. 



" . . .It had been arranged that a repast al fresco should be provided 

 under the celebrated old Sorb, or ' Whitty Pear-tree,' as commonly called, 

 in- the midst of the forest shade, and to this point, towards three o'clock, 

 hope and effort was turned, and many a shout rang through the woodland 

 shade long unanswered ; but after a time, through the blooming heather 

 and long fern of gratefiil smell, an answer came ; and at last, relieving 

 every fear, Mr. Jordan, the Botanical Custos of the Forest, came into 

 view, and all finally surrounded the acceptable spread which had been 

 tastily displayed on the grass by the worthy host of the ' Crown ' at Bewd- 

 ley, with all the required appendages, and three smiling forest-nymphs to 

 wait upon the tired wanderers. Amidst the festal scene the old Sorb-tree 

 appeared, the withered wreck of centuries, and after the repast was con- 

 cluded, the Vice-President of the Club gave a sketch of its history, sug- 

 gesting that as it was the only individual of the Pyrus domestica that ex- 

 isted in Britain in an apparently wild state, it was in reality of foreign 

 origin, and not improbably brought over from the south of France by 

 some recluse in the reign of Edward IIL, when the Duchy of Aquitaine 

 was held by the English, as this species of Fyrus was known to be indi- 

 genous on the slopes of the Pyrenees. For centuries it had been here re- 

 garded with the same superstitious regard that in Scotland was attached 

 to the Mountain' Ash or Eown-tree, the memory and even the faith in 

 which yet remained. . . . 



" The plants found were almost too mmierous to recount, but two may 

 be particularly mentioned as discoveries — the Cerastlum arvense, a rare 

 species, found a few days before in some abundance in a sandy field, by 

 Mr. Ground, and exhibited ; and the Lilium pyrenaicum, met with within 

 the forest bounds in a naturalized state, though probably derivable from 

 some former old garden past and gone. Other plants noticed or gathered 

 were, Rosa villosa, tomentosa, and inodora, Rliamnus Frangula, Geranium 

 sanguineum and sylvaticmn, Pyrola minor, Myosotis repens, Fedicularis pa- 

 liistris, Scutellaria minor* Anagallis tenella, Orchis latifolia and incarnata, 



* Not long after this botanical fete in Wyre Forest was celebrated, viz. on the 



