THE BOTANY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 71 



Viola lutea*, Vicia sylvatica, Parnassia palustris, Antennaria dioica*, 

 Crepis paludosa, Campanula latifolia, Pyrola minor*, Pinguicula vulgaris, 

 Salix pentandra, Empetrum nigrum, Melica nutans*. Among species of 

 Intermediate type (chiefly seen in Mid-Britain) we have Poterium officinale, 

 Gagea lutea. Crocus nudiflorus and Scheuchzeria palustris*. Plants of 

 the Atlantic type (chiefly seen in West England) are, as might be expected, 

 few in number, and indeed not a single species is known to occur now, 

 at any rate as a native; the recorded species are Coronopus didymus, 

 Erodium moschatum and E. maritimum, Sedum anglicum and Verbascum 

 virgatum. Vaccinium vitis-idaea* is our only Highland species, and 

 Selinum carvi folia the only representative of the Local type (restricted to 

 single or few counties). 



Botanical Districts 



Nottinghamshire lies wholly within the drainage area of the Trent, so 

 that the usual division of a county into river basins for botanical purposes 

 is not possible in our case. The districts adopted (first published in the 

 article on Botany in the Victoria History of Nottinghamshire) are there- 

 fore based on the geological structure of the county, and this division is 

 a really natural one, for with the exception of the alluvial tracts bordering 

 the Trent and its tributary streams httle drift occurs to obscure the older 

 deposits, and consequently the surface soil is principally formed by the 

 disintegration and decay in situ of the underlying rocks. The wide differ- 

 ences in the physical and chemical composition of the resulting soils have 

 of course a marked influence on the character of the flora of each form- 

 ation. 



Leaving out of consideration the superficial (drift and alluvial) deposits, 

 the formations represented in Nottinghamshire are the Coal Measures, 

 Permian, Trias (Bunter and Keuper), Rhaetic, and Lower Lias. These 

 form bands running partially or completely through the county in a 

 direction approximately north and south. 



The outcrop of the Coal Measures forms a band sixteen miles long 

 between Stapleford in the south and Teversal in the north, and varying 

 in width from two to about four miles. To the east it is succeeded by 

 the Permian or Magnesian Limestone which forms a narrow band run- 

 ning from Nottingham to the county boundary on the north, a distance 

 of about thirty-two miles. At its maximum development it is about four 

 miles in width, but for the most part is considerably narrower. The 

 sandstones and conglomerates of the Bunter which follow occupy a much 

 larger tract of land — nearly forty miles long by seven or eight in width 

 over the greater part of its extent, except in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Nottingham, where it is much narrower. 



Quite half the area of the county is occupied by deposits of Keuper 

 age, but as the valley of the Trent hes almost wholly in this formation it 

 is a good deal covered by alluvial deposits. The Rhaetic shales form a 

 band of insignificant extent along the eastern margin of the Keuper. 



*Species marked with an asterisk have not been seen in the county 

 for many years and are probably extinct. 



