3ir 



BOTANICAL SURVEY OF TEESDALE. 



Wm. G. SMITH, Ph.D., and T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D. 



The following sketch gives a few impressions on some aspects 

 of Teesdale vegetation. During the excursion, opportunity 

 was afforded of a visit to the three main portions of the Ujiper 

 Teesdale district, including Lunedale and Balderdale. In the 

 neighbourhood of Middleton the valley presents few features 

 of note as it consists mainly of enclosed grassland passing over 

 at higher elevations to grassy and heathy fell. These in the 

 main are the features of Lunedale, the grassy slopes being rarely 

 broken by cUfls or scars. In Balderdale the influence of the 

 largely non-calcareous nature of the Yoredales is well marked 

 on the vegetation. Here we have an extensive development 

 of relatively impervious, and mainly non-calcareous beds 

 with swampy grasslands and moors dominated by bogmoss and 

 Junci, while the drier pastures were studded with Viola liitea 

 in strong contrast to th^. blue form (F. amccna) of Upper 

 Teesdale. In the latter dale the rocky river bed, often with 

 precipitous sides, the fine cliffs of basalt and limestone, provide 

 a contrast and variety both in scenery and vegetation, absent 

 in the dales of the Lune and Balder. The richness of the flora 

 is notorious, and although the visit was early and the season 

 backward, the pastures showed signs of a coming wealth of 

 flowering plants. Anemone and early purple orchis were 

 already abundant among the grasses, and many other character- 

 istic species were in leaf. The bright green pastures here, 

 recalled those of Craven, rather than the dull and less varied 

 grasslands of the Calder and other millstone grit valleys of 

 South Yorkshire. 



At Holwick, on the right bank of the Tees, Juniper became 

 prominent, forming an extensive and fairly dense thicket on 

 the scarred slopes near the river. This interesting plant 

 extended up to Cronkley Scars as a more or less continuous 

 scrub. On the left bank the Juniper began below High Force, 

 and was abundant on the steep heathery slopes up to Widdy 

 Bank Farm, and after being broken by the grass fields, it again 

 appeared abundantly on Falcon Clints up to Cauldron Snout. 

 Mr. F. J. Lewis, in his memoir on the 'Vegetation of the Basins of 

 the Rivers Eden, Tees, Wear and Tyne ' (' Geographical 

 Journal,' 1904), records this as the most extensive development 

 of Juniper in that area, and states that this plant association is 



1910 Aug. I. 



