70 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NOTTINGHAM AND DISTRICT 



not yet been fully worked out. Much work also remains to be done 

 among the Rubi, Roses, Hieracia, etc., the forms of which — elevated to 

 specific rank — swell the lists of some of the neighbouring counties. Com- 

 pared with such counties as Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire our 

 flora must necessarily seem poor, but the reason for this is to be sought 

 in the comparative lack of variety in the physical conditions of Notting- 

 hamshire combined with the highly cultivated state of most of its area. 

 There is scarcely any uncultivated ground with the exception of parts of 

 Sherwood Forest, and this being situated on the dry and arid Bunter 

 sandstone possesses only a poor and scanty flora: even in the wooded 

 parts of the forest the undergrowth consists almost entirely of bracken. 

 There are few or no large sheets of water save the trimly-kept artificial 

 lakes in the principal parks, and there is an almost complete absence of 

 bog, so that lacustrine and bog-loving plants are largely wanting. More- 

 over, the Carboniferous, Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones which bear 

 so rich a flora in the neighbouring counties do not extend into Notting- 

 hamshire, and their absence is only partially compensated for by the 

 Permian Magnesium limestone which occupies the western margin of the 

 county and, while possessing a moderately rich and varied flora, cannot 

 compare in this respect with the more highly calcareous Chalk, Oolite 

 or Mountain Limestone of the counties around us. 



West Yorkshire, with an area of 2,760 square miles, is more than three 

 times the size of Nottinghamshire, and with its numerous hiUs, many of 

 which are over 2,000 feet high, possesses an extensive alpine or true 

 mountain flora which could not exist with us — our greatest elevation 

 being only 651 feet; moreover the 'pavements', terraces, and scars of 

 the Mountain hmestone region, and the wide expanses of moorland and 

 peat-bog, are tenanted by numerous species which for lack of suitable 

 conditions are absent from Nottinghamshire. The same remarks apply 

 in a lesser degree to Derbyshire, which possesses a considerable number 

 of montane plants on its high northern moorlands; the flora of its lime- 

 stone dales also is a very rich and varied one. Lincolnshire, with an 

 area greater even than that of West Yorkshire, with its long coast-line, 

 its salt marshes, its chalk wolds and Jurassic limestones, has an enormous 

 advantage, botanically, over Nottinghamshire, and it is not surprising 

 that its flora is numerically so much richer than that of its inland neigh- 

 bour. Leicestershire has a slightly ^maller area than Nottinghamshire, 

 with a very similar flora, except that the Archaean rocks which form the 

 high ground of Charnwood Forest support a few species which are not 

 found with us. 



The great majority of our wild plants naturally belong to the British 

 (widely spread throughout Great Britain) and English (widely spread 

 throughout England and Wales) types of distribution, but there is a 

 sprinkhng of species representing other types. Thus of Germanic species 

 (chiefly seen in East England) we have Myosurus minimus, Hippuris vul- 

 garis, Galium erectum and G. tricorne, Lactuca virosa. Campanula 

 glomerata, Monotropa hypopitys, Limosella aquatica. Orchis pyramidalis 

 and O. ustulata*. Allium oleraceum, Bromus erectus, Brachypodium 

 pinnatum, Hordeum europaeum, etc. Of Scottish type are, among others, 



