172 Yorkshire Naturalists at Riccall. 



granted to visit the Commons; also to the guides, Mr. W. 

 Ingham, Rev. C. D. Ash, Dr. W. J. Fordham, and Mr. W. N. 

 Cheesman ; particularly to the latter gentleman for his great 

 help in making the local arrangements ; and also to the Rev. 

 R. Hyde for the use of the school. 



The result of the work of the sections is given in the follow- 

 ing reports : — ■ 



Geology. — Mr. H. Culpin writes : — The route taken was 

 from Riccall by the bank of the River Ouse to Turnhead Farm, 

 then across the fields to the Common, and back to Riccall by 

 the field path north of Danes' Hills. The natural bank of the 

 river at the bend near Turnhead Farm was examined, and 

 was found to shew several feet of coarse brown sand. On the 

 Common and the adjoining fields there was much blown sand, 

 some of it very fine grained. A section on the Common gave 

 eight inches of peat on 2 feet of sand. Three small boulders 

 were found about half-a-mile south of Danes' Hills. One was 

 Carboniferous Limestone, one a grit with Proditctus, and one 

 a close-grained grit without fossils ; otherwise there was a 

 remarkable absence of stones (and gravel) throughout the 

 . district traversed. The prevailing soil was loose and sandy. 

 South of the Common some fields with a clayey soil were noticed. 



Flowering Plants : — Mr. J. F. Robinson writes : — From 

 notes made at Riccall and Common it was apparent that things 

 were not nearly so numerous nor luxuriant as one has previously 

 experienced in this bit — one of the very few left — of primitively 

 wild East Yorkshire. This was undoubtedly accounted for 

 by the recent lack of rain ; and things generally did not look 

 their brightest on this occasion for the reason that, besides 

 being dry, it was decidedly chilly. But many plants were 

 flowering : notably the white and red Dead Nettles, Storksbill, 

 Erodium cicutarium, Viola riviniana, and V. palustris. The 

 greater and lesser burnet, Sanguisorha officinalis and Poterium 

 Sanguisorha, the former in foliage only, the latter with flower- • 

 buds not yet open ; the three common heath plants, Calluna, 

 Erica tetralix, and E. cinerea, were all seen in greater or less 

 profusion ; but with scarcely a sign of the new season's foliage 

 as yet. Nearer Skipwith, on the side of the Common remote, 

 from Riccall, Rumex maritimus, and Mentha Pulegium were 

 seen in their well-known station ; whilst by the roadside 

 Bryonia dioica, Malva sylvestris [y^ith. the characteristic fungal 

 ascidia on the leaves), Artemisia vulgaris, etc., vegetated pro- 

 fusely. 



Later in the evening, with Messrs. Cheesman, Culpin, and 

 Stather, I went to the banks of the Ouse, and in a field adjacent 

 thereto saw a marvellous growth, (it was all over the field), of 

 crow garlic, Allium vineale, and of Colchicum aiitiimnale, the 

 * crocus ' which flowers in autumn (September) when the leaves 



Naturalist, ■ 



