THE FLORA OF LEICESTERSHIRE 29 
marsh cinquefoil, shoreweed being likewise abundant in the Reservoir 
itself. Several rare Rubi also grow here, and in the district, and although 
now styled a reservoir this, once feeder of the old Ashby Canal, was 
doubtless a natural pool in the wildest surroundings, before it was com- 
pletely transformed by coal-mining operations. ‘The canal itself contains 
Elisma natans, and on its banks Sagina nodosa, etc. 
Groby Pool, which is in the south-east corner of Charnwood, in a hollow 
of Red Marl and Granite surrounded, at ‘ Frog Hole,’ with a cover of peat 
and alluvium, at about 300 ft. O.D., is another old natural reservoir, 
where there is quite a large assemblage of rare plants. In the pool itself 
mare’s tail, bladderwort, and recently a gentianaceous water plant, 
Limnanthemum, have been found. In the marshy alder swamp at the back 
grow grass-of-Parnassus, bog bean, marsh helleborine, and other marsh 
and spotted orchids, twayblade, marsh pennywort, two kinds of cotton 
grass (not the hare’s tail, once erroneously reported), marsh bedstraw, 
marsh red-rattle, great and lesser spearworts, bog speedwell, various 
water buttercups, a great variety of sedges, some rare, marsh spike rush, 
etc., besides all the more usual marsh and aquatic plants. By the roadside 
hardby occur, in grass heath, silver cinquefoil, soft knotted clover, 
hare’s-foot trefoil, red sandwort; in the quarry clammy groundsel, 
American cress; and in the adjoining Sheet Hedges or Groby Wood, 
a sandy oakwood in part, both golden saxifrages, bear’s garlic, columbine, 
foxglove, cow wheat, pretty St. John’s wort, giant bellflower, hawk- 
weeds, etc. 
(4) The newer Limestones or Oolites constitute a fourth type, the 
Lincolnshire Limestone, forming calcareous soils and limestone pasture. 
On the Cotswolds and elsewhere the beech and ash form woodland, but 
locally in north-east Leicestershire around Saltby where this type is best 
developed there is very little woodland. Limestone pasture occurs 
extensively at Saltby, Stonesby, Sproxton, Waltham, on the Mere Road, 
and elsewhere. This flora includes the typical grasses, tor grass, as 
aggressive as bracken, and tending to destroy or exclude the more interest- 
ing members of the association, especially in Rutland where limestone 
pasture is better developed, erect brome grass, sheep’s fescue, Keeleria, 
rock rose, horseshoe vetch, purple milk vetch, marjoram, autumnal 
gentian, field gentian, lady’s fingers, pyramidal orchid, bee orchid 
(also on older limestones at Breedon Cloud Quarry and elsewhere on Lias, 
etc.), early spotted orchid; long-stalked crane’s bill, yellow wort, 
dropwort, greater knapweed, and the rare chalk milkwort at Sproxton 
(also in Rutland where I found it six weeks earlier on April 28), squinancy 
wort, white mullein (King Ludd’s encampments), field ragwort ; and 
formerly pasque flower and mountain everlasting were said to grow near 
here. At Saltby also is an interesting limestone swamp at the junction 
of the Upper Lias and Northampton Sand, with several plants previously 
confined to Charnwood Forest, and thought to be extinct, viz: butterwort, 
black bog rush, etc. Besides these there may be found in this north-east 
area many other limestone plants of more general occurrence. In the 
Harston district also the Marlstone supports a distinctive limestone flora, 
and the Upper Lias a series of woods resembling sandy oak woods, with 
