﻿BOO THE BOTANY OF HIGH-CUP NICK, WESTMOKBLAND. 



to be hoped lie will expand, when their investigations have been 

 extended, into a flora of the whole county, which it would be very 

 interesting to have. Our present notes are confined to High-cup 

 Nick and the gill below it, and the neighbouring hills. Through 

 the kind introduction of Canon Matthews, the Vicar of Appleby, we 

 were enabled to obtain a lodging at Keisley, which consists of three 

 farmhouses which stand at an elevation of 800-900 ft. above sea- 

 level, on the side of the bill, overlooking the High-cup stream just 

 where it emerges from the hills. The district included does not go 

 down below 600 ft., and rises to 2000-2100 ft. We looked out 

 specially for the Teesdale rarities, with what success the following 

 list will show. The upper limit of Watson's Mid-agrarian zone 

 may be taken here, as elsewhere in the North of England, at 

 1000 ft. Here, as at the Lakes, there are no houses, and no 

 cultivated fields above the Mid-agrarian zone. Above 1000 ft. also 

 there are no continuous woods, only scattered hawthorn, rowans, 

 and ash trees on the cliffs or grassy hill-slopes, so that the Super- 

 agrarian zone has an abnormally small flora. It is quite different 

 in North Yorkshire and Durham, where there are farmhouses up 

 to 1800-2000 ft., and often woods at the bottom of the ghylls. On 

 the hilltops above 2000 ft. the flora is very limited. There are only 

 Rubus Chamamorus, Vacdmum Vitis-idaa, Empetrum nigrum, and a 

 few of the common moorland species. 



In the following list we have enumerated all the plants we saw. 

 For those that do not ascend above 1000 ft. no elevation is given. 

 The top of the basaltic crags in High-cup Nick we estimated at 

 1500 ft., and the stream in the upper part of the glen may be taken 

 at 1200 ft. ; and where it breaks quite free from the hill, just below 

 our farmhouse, at 750 ft. But it must be borne in mind that, 

 owing to the special circumstances of the case, a large proportion 

 of the ascending elevations must be considered as quite abnormal, 

 and that many of the common Mid-agrarian weeds and wild plants 

 of the lower levels, e. g., Lamium album, the Poppies, Sisymbrium 

 officinale, Rubus rusticanus, BaUota nigra, Scrophularia aquatica, 

 Antn'/o Phragmites, Eupatorium cannabinum, do not reach up so 

 high as the district here dealt with. 



Mr. F. J . Hanbury has been good enough to look through the 

 Hieracia, and the Eev. E. S. Marshall has kindly given us his 

 opinion on some of the Epilobia. We have to return our best 

 thanks to both of these gentlemen. 



Thalictrum alpinum. Hilly slopes beyond the head of High-cup 

 Nick, 500-600 yds. — T. montanwn. Dry limestone cliffs over 

 Keisley and towards Dufton, and on the spur of the hill between 

 High-cup Nick and Middle Tongue Ghyll, 400-500 yds. — Ranun- 

 culus peitatus. Pond on the ridge above Keisley, 300-350 yds.— 

 R. hederaceus. Swamp above Harbour Flats. — R. acris, repens, and 

 Flammula. Common, ascending to 500 yds. — Caltha palustris. 

 Common in swamp up to 500 yds. ; the var. minor at the bottom of 

 High-cup Nick. — Trollim europams. Swamp by the High-cup 

 stream below Harbour Flats. 



