22 Woodruffe- Peacock : The Ecology of Thome Waste. 



deltoidea,^ and Scirpus maritimus .] So far from the shore 

 I have not yet heard of J uncus Gerardi, which has been taken 

 on other warpings nearer the coast but in every case I believe 

 boot or mammal foot carried. These three species are soon 

 gone when the warping period is over. See Journal of Botany, 

 1917, pp. 333-4. (16.) 



Scheuchzeria palustris L. — This was, from the plant col- 

 lector's point of view, the only truly interesting species found 

 in the whole area of this large bog. From the ecologist's 

 point of view, it is duck-carried and so might be there or not, 

 as the facts of carriage and local circumstance allowed. It 

 is not there now, but, as it once abounded, we may safely 

 reason only because there is no fitting ecological nidus for it. 

 A few points remain to be settled about it — (i) when, (2) 

 where, {3) by whom, and (4) under what circumstances,, 

 was it found. Dr. P. Ellis, though he had forgotten its 

 scientific name in his old age, said it was the rarest plant in 

 the district. He surely meant the most unusual in a wide 

 area. There were far rarer, more transient, or unstable 

 species even then on the waste, as Hydrocharis, Utricularia 

 minor and Zannichellia palustris for instance. He said, ' it 

 was found in 1S30 or a little after,' and named a Mr. Harrison 

 as connected with it. This is confirmed by Mr. A. Bennett's 

 notes on Scheuchzeria, which say, ' Thorne Moor, near Don- 

 caster, Mr. R. Harrison.'* Sir W. J. Hooker's British 

 Flora, 2nd edition., 1831, p. 170. The next note in time is 

 ' Thorne Moor, in great plenty.' S. Appleby, Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., 1832, Vol. v., p. 558. In the late Rev. J. K. Miller's 

 notes. The Naturalist, 1895, p. 170, we read : ' Thorne Waste,' 

 Crowle side, I learned from his son, George, under date, 

 i6th July, 1840, ' most abundant in a little pool nearest to 

 the Decoy, but found in others too.' F. A. Lees says. Flora 

 of West Yorks, 1888, ' Sought in vain by Dr. Parsons in 1877-80. 

 I found one flower less example by one of the ' wells,' in com- 

 pany with Mr. W. Todd, in 1870 ; recognisable as Scheuchzeria 

 by the pore at the tip of its leaf.' I saw nothing of it from 

 1874-81, when I was often on the waste, and it was not for 

 want of looking in likely spots. 



These are all the facts we have to work with. As far as 

 they go they fully corroborate Dr. P. Ellis's statements as to 

 its finder, and that it was in the old turbaries in pools on the 

 Lincolnshire and Yorkshire edge of this peat bog, where I 

 understood only a three-foot wide drain marked the county 

 border. I have passed over this boundary many times not 

 recognising it, and I do not know it to this day. When this 

 spot was warped because it was the lowest ground — the tur- 



* ])ocs iinyonc know anything of this K. Harrison or of S. Apiil(l>y r 



