372 REV. J. M. HICKS REPORT OF 



Marske the mimulus was found in the bed of Clapgate Beck. 

 After resting some time and waiting for the members of our 

 party who had taken a slightly different route (we did not, 

 however, see them until we reached Richmond), we followed 

 the track past Applegarth Farm to the High Whitcliffe Woods, 

 and a brisk climb up the craggy slope took us to Willan's Leap 

 and the moor. Here the golden cross of the tormentil dotted 

 the short crisp herbage, and a pond silvered by the water 

 crowfoot shone in the sunlight. In the early hours of Sunday 

 morning a thunderstorm raged (I narrowly escaped one as I 

 was returning home on Saturday evening), cooling and clearing 

 the atmosphere after the sultry night ; and after breakfast a 

 start was made across the old bridge by the side of the Swale 

 below the Billy Bank Woods. Both the pied and the grey 

 wagtail with young were darting in and out of the low deep 

 shadow of the opposite woods, chasing insects and alighting 

 on the stones in the river's bed. Our path lay in the shadow, 

 close below the limestone crags and caves which stand out 

 from the foliage as though sculptured by hand. The dominant 

 plant was the dog's mercury, whose dense growth choked the 

 humbler flowers, and was only pierced by the higher stems of 

 the campion, enchanters nightshade and sanicle, while nearer 

 the river the delicate purple and yellow vetchling and the 

 coarse figwort were growing. As we passed out of the woods 

 the twayblade and palmate orchis were seen, and in the 

 meadows the parasitic eyebright and yellow-rattle were thick 

 in the hay crop. Hovering and flitting here and there were 

 the wild bees, the white and a single small blue butterfly. Our 

 path was now along the road for a couple of miles, the wooded 

 heights towering on either hand, with verdant fields alongside, 

 starred by the discs of the oxeyed daisy. The hedges and 

 walls, with wide strips of green sward running alongside, were 

 fringed with trees ; here and there a yellow cushion of meadow 

 vetchling, or purple or red bed of geraniums and ragged robin ; 

 and a specimen of the stone bramble was found among the 

 rocks. A little beyond the point where the Marske Beck 

 bubbles over its stones into the Swale, our path turned to the 



