320 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT KIRKBY MOORSIDE. 
plateau each streamlet, neither hasting nor resting, has gnawed its 
way, and now flows in an almost level course in a flat valley, not 
much above the mean of the Derwent plain, hemmed in on either 
side by steep banks which may almost be called cliffs. These 
sloping sides are much covered with wood, and give delightful 
occupation to the botanist. In the Ouldray Valley, near Helmsley, the 
rare Actea and the green Hellebore almost engross one of these steeps, 
yet making room for their cousin Columbine on account of the kinship, 
and we found it very fitting that these three choice Ranunculids 
should grow together. Again, where the rock is exposed in crags, 
or strewn in fragments on the slope, herbs impatient of moisture find 
their home. Here it was in Douthwaite that the Hound’s Tongue was 
flourishing, and here the Deadly Nightshade assumed the proportions 
of a bush, while the Ploughman’s Spikenard grew at its feet. The 
flat bottoms of these valleys, floored with the insoluble particles of 
the rocks above, are often retentive of water, and form swamps which 
yield sedges and rushes and other water-loving plants. The lovely 
Grass of Parnassus was here and the tender Bog Pimpernel, and in 
one marshy spot far from any homestead the Yellow Mimulus was 
luxuriating as though it had never known the shelter of a cottage 
garden, 
Other noteworthy plants which were observed —Vicia 
sylvatica, Paris guadrifolia, Convallaria mazailis, pep oa 
Scutellaria galericulata, Epilobium angustifolium, Myrrhis sashes 
Epipactis palustris, Sein paludosa, Scabtosa columbaria, Cerastiu 
trinerve, Pinguicula vulgaris, Geum intermedium, Festuca posi 
Hordeum sylvaticum, Triodia decumbens, Triglochin palustre, Blysmus — 
compressus, Scirpus sylvaticus, Carex flava, C. pulicaria, C. pallescens, 
C. remota, C. panicea, C. paniculata, Polystichum aculeatum. 
On 
the previous day some of mgs party gathered Contum 
maculatum and Echium vulgare at Helmsley Castle and at 
He 
Rievaulx Abbey, and Daphne inne and Ribes alpinus ude oe 
the latter place. eS 
The geological report was presented be Mr. W. Lower Carter, o 
M.A., F.G.S., and the following account is written by the Secretaries _ 
of the Geobeion Section, Messrs. W W. Lower pias M. A. — 
and John W. Stather, F.G.S.:-— A 
Kirkby Moorside lies on the morhem edge of the reat ee 
