October 20, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



311 



direction, for the baskets of Funguses they brought with them proved 

 that many a successful foray had previously been made. In addition 

 to these a large hamper had been kindly sent from Whitfield. Holme 

 Lacy and Haywood Forest supplied the Vegetable Beefsteaks, and Mr. 

 Worthington G. Smith moat thoughtfully brought down a selection of 

 the Funguses with which he had won the prize the day before at the 

 Royal Horticultural Show at South Kensington. 



The great success of the exhibition of Funguses was thus assured, 

 and while several gentlemen most diligently occupied themselves in 

 writing their names and arranging them on the tables provided, the 

 rest, with Elmes Y. Steele, Esq., in the chair, proceeded to transact 

 the ordinary routine business of the meeting. 



The members of the Caradoc Field Club had been invited to join 

 in the day's proceedings, and were represented in the field by the Rev. 

 E. Donald Carr, the Honorary Secretary, the Rev. J. D. La Touche, 

 and several other gentlemen. In their honour the special district 

 from which the club takes its name was to be visited, and the road was 

 first taken for Hagley Park, about four miles east of the city. Here 

 they were kindly welcomed by Arthur Hutchinson, Esq., and proceeded 

 at once to examine the quarry which has so special an interest for the 

 members of the Woolhope Club. 



Minute and careful as were the researches of the officers of the Ord- 

 nance Survey in this district, the existence of an upheaval of silurian 

 rocks at Hagley Park entirely escaped their notice. The discovery of 

 this quarry in which they are so manifestly shown was the first feather 

 in the cap of the Woolhope Club. It was made by the late M. J. 

 Scobie, Esq., who worked at it with all the intelligent zeal for which 

 he was so distinguished. He took the exact dip of the strata, noted 

 their characters, measured their thickness, and collected their fossils, 

 until he had quite satisfied himself with the reality and importance 

 of his discovery. He then invited the late Hugh E. Strickland, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., reader in geology at Oxford, to come and see it. Mr. 

 Strickland fully confirmed Mr. Scobie's observations, and wrote a 

 paper on the subject, which appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the 

 Geological Society. 



The general facts and conclusions of this paper were given to the 

 gentlemen present, with an account of the crustacean fossil found here 

 by Mr. Scobie. It proved to be the Pterygotus problematicus of 

 Agassiz, and it was afterwards figured and described in the Quarterly 

 Geological Journal of J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S. 



It was decided that these papers of Messrs. Strickland and Salter 

 should appear in our own Transactions — meanwhile an active examina- 

 tion of the rocks was being made and many fossils were found. This 

 celebrated " Ludlow Bone bed," described by Sir Roderick Murchison 

 in the " Silurian System," is unquestionably represented in this 

 quarry. It occurs between the Downton Sandstone and the Upper 

 Ludlow Shale, and varies here in thickness from that of a wafer to 

 li inch in some places. The quarry was not being worked near the 

 junction at this time, but a search was made specially for it, and with 

 the aid of a man and a pickaxe some few spines were found on Octo- 

 ber 6th. 



The Rev. J. D. La Touche said this bone bed varied very much in 

 thickness in different localities, as might be expected. At Corston, 

 Salop, it was as much as 6 inches in thickness, and consisted almost 

 entirely of a mass of scales and teeth and bones of fishes broken up 

 and waterworn — what these fishes were is not known with any certainty. 



Leaving the quarry the hunt for Funguses beneath the Oak trees in 

 the park began most unsuccessfully — not one was to be seen ; but here, 

 as everywhere else, the abundance of acorns could not fail to be ob- 

 served, and the wonder was expressed why they were not systematically 

 collected. When crushed and given in small quantities to sheep and 

 pigs, acorns form a most nourishing and useful food. At a time when 

 fodder is so scarce as it is this year, it does indeed seem strange that 

 this prolific source of food should be so much overlooked. The Horse 

 Chestnuts, too, are still more neglected, and yet it is stated positively, 

 that when crushed, cows will eat them readily and give an increased 

 supply of excellent milk. This year they, too, are very abundant and 

 fine, and it is said that their only use should be as playthings for 

 children to string and hang round their necks. Will no one give 

 village children the delight of collecting them for some small recom- 

 pense, make experiments with them in feeding cattle and horses, and 

 publish the results ? As a scientific society, the Woolhope Club can 

 say they are certainly not poisonous, and equally sure is it that they 

 are nutritious, but whether the animals could really be got to relish 

 them, and if so the best way of inducing tbem to do so, are points that 

 have yet to be discovered. 



Two fine Lombardy Poplars grow in Hagley Park. They are believed 

 to be the largest and tallest in the county. At 5 feet from the ground 

 they measure respectively 12 feet 10 inches and 14 feet 1 inch in cir- 

 cumference. They stand out boldly all alone, and spread out their 

 boughs in a way that conceals their height, and yet the tallest by 

 shadow measurement was made 132 feet high. Each tree sends out 

 from its bole strong buttresses towards the north, the better to resist 

 the winds they are exposed to. 



At the foot of one of these trees some fine Funguses were found. 

 They were thought to be Agaricus (Pholiota) pndicus, and from their 

 fragrant smell and pleasant taste, which many tried, were also judged 

 to be edible. On reference to the best authorities both surmises proved 

 to be correct. 

 Some 50 yards from one of the Poplars stands the Hagley Park ' 



Elm, and this grand tree was next visited. It has still a fine upright 

 bole, almost free from the excrescences to which Elms are so liable. It 

 gives in fair measurement, 22 feet 10 inches in circumference at 5 feet 

 from the ground. It is long past its prime, has lost its top and many 

 boughs, and is partially hollow, but it is still a noble well-balanced 

 tree. It was greatly admired, and the wish several times expressed 

 that it might be photographed for the Transactions. In the same field 

 another luxuriant Elm gives a circumference of 14 feet, and thus adds 

 its testimony to the richness and strength of the soil below. 



Near the east entrance at the cross road stands an Elm which figures 

 as a boundary tree on a map of the estate with the date 1734 upon it. 

 Its girth is only 11 feet 9 inches, and it is given simply as a notable tree. 

 The celebrated trap dyke at Bartestree was the next object on the 

 programme. The fine high pasture field leading to it was searched in 

 vain for the Funguses, which must commonly grow there, nor did it to- 

 day give the pleasure it usually does to its visitors, for a mist hung 

 over the scene, and rendered but dimly visible the well-known clump 

 of Fir trees on the summit of Blackbury Hill, which had yet to be sur- 

 mounted. 



The geologists were interested, as they ever must be, with the well- 

 known dyke of greenstone at Bartestree. It has been thrown up in 

 a fissure a few yards wide, through horizontal strata of old red sand- 

 stone, and by its intense heat at the time has baked the sandstone into 

 a dark friable mass. It has now nearly all of it been quarried away 

 for road-mending purposes. The remainder should certainly be left 

 as an object of the deepest scientific interest. 



On leaving this remarkable basaltic dyke, a lofty and most luxuriant 

 bramble bush, hung with sable fruit more than usually fine, attracted 

 attentiou. It was a striking and uncommon variety, but happily the 

 highest authority for this puzzling genus was present, and on being ap- 

 pealed to, Mr. Lees pronounced it to be Rubus rudis. 



The way was then taken for the high road, but a vei'y interesting 

 halt was called in the corner of a Barley stubble field, just below the 

 convent. Beneath the drop of a hedgegrow Oak some Funguses were 

 found of a very peculiar character. They were judged at first to he the 

 Scleroderma vulgare, with its usual centre of dark blue sporules, open- 

 ing in a peculiar stellate way in consequence of the dry weather. Mr. 

 Broome, however, at once remarked that the stellate markings were 

 visible on the immature Funguses, and he pronounced it to be Sclero- 

 derma geaster of Fries, which we may call the Star-like Scleroderma. 

 This variety, though often looked for, has never before been found in 

 Britain, and thus a marked addition to British Fungology has once 

 again been made by the Woolhope Club. 



The carriages were again taken at the Longworth entrance lodge for 

 the foot of Blackbury Hill. At the Priors Court Farm they were left, 

 and the ascent of the hill commenced through the dense covert which 

 clothes its sides, all beautifully variegated as it was by the touch of 

 autumn. Amongst 



" The tints of rich and roseate hues," 

 the leaves of the wild Guelder Rose, Viburnum Lantana, here at home 

 upon limestone, and the almost bloody hue of the Spindle tree, Euony- 

 mns europaeus, were eminently conspicuous, contrasted as they were 

 with the pale orange of the Maple, and the varying hues of the fading 

 leaves around them. 



Blackbury Hill has several botanical productions of interest, among 

 which the Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis, may be noted, while 

 the masses of Virgin's-bower, Clematis Vitalba, flourish with such 

 graceful exuberance as to arrest attention at every step. 



The hill is formed by the Aymestrey limestone, which at the summit 

 is broken up into great masses of exposed rock, with such deep cavities 

 and passages interposed between them as to suggest some violent cata- 

 | clasm having taken place on the spot, rather than that slow wearing 

 away by the tooth of time, as was contended for by the Rev. J. D. La 

 Touche. Traces of violence here seemed evident, though whether by 

 the gunpowder of man in blasting the limestone of the quarry or the 

 earthquake's titanic effort in ages past, there is no record to show. 

 There is a very interesting camp on the summit, with a double en- 

 trenchment towards the east, and a covered way, which may not now 

 be dwelt upon. The exposed precipitous masses of fractured rock are 

 commonly called " Adam's Rocks," or sometimes " Hatton's Rocks," 

 but from what circumstance the name is derived, whether legendary or 

 historical, is not known. Whether some glorious old chieftain of that 

 ilk held the camp successfully against all comers, or whether some in- 

 glorious rustic Adam, or Hatton, may have broken his neck here on a 

 misty November eve, there is no certain information forthcoming. 

 Be this as it may, the visitor to thiB spot, whether of a geological or 

 poetical turn of mind (though he must be careful how he turns his 

 body), will be charmed with the prospect before him; the coloured 

 woods, the verdant dales, the boldly rising hills, the distant views 

 stretching on beyond the curvatures of the sparkling Wye to the Black 

 Mountains, bounding the horizon, may not readily be forgotten when 

 once they have been seen. On the present occasion, however, the break 

 of sunshine had unfortunately disappeared, and a tantalising brooding 

 mist, 



Like sorrow's veil on beauty's brow, 



as Anacreon Moore writes of a like, " Mist o'er blooming bowers," 

 about famed Killarney, now hid the distant prospect, and even dimmed 

 the celebrated Haugh Wood, the dome from which the other rocks of 

 the Woolhope Valley are thrown off subordinately. 



The company were here assembled by the sound of the whistle, and 



