BOTANY 
4. Tue Iver Districr 
has for its boundaries those of the West Ouse district already described from near Roxton 
to Boughton End. At this place it touches the Ouzel district, from which it is separated by a 
line drawn across the county from Boughton End to Eversholt, Toddington, Chalgrave, and 
Chalton Cross; it then borders the Lea district along the Icknield Way until the Herts 
county boundary is reached, and this limits it as far as to Edworth. Here the Cam district 
comes in, and the water parting is traced by Dunton, and west of Eyworth, to Tadlow, where 
the Cambridge county border then limits it on the north as far as to Cold Arbour, at which 
point an arbitrary line is drawn across county to about a mile west of Tempsford, and 
thence southwards to Blunham station. The district is also watered by the Flitt and Hiz 
streams. ‘The greatest elevation is about 530 feet near Streatley, but a large extent of the 
area is below 200 feet. 
The Ivel district is perhaps the most interesting portion of the county from a botanist’s 
point of view, since it comprises a great variety of soils, including the bare chalk of the downs, 
the flat valley of the Flitt with its extensive deposits of peat and a rich uliginal flora, and the 
southern slopes of the Lower Greensand ridge, which affords a warm porous soil with a varied 
selection of characteristic plants. The country too is very charming from a scenic point of 
view, and there are still spots untouched by cultivation, where the lover of nature may revel, 
and where the student may yet make additions to the county flora. 
The meadows by the Flitt from Flitwick to Flitton are particularly rich in bog species, 
notwithstanding some attempts at drainage having been made, and there are detached portions 
of bog-land which occur as far as to Shefford. 
Here occur the sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), the marsh violet (Viola palustris), the small 
valerian (Valeriana dioica), the bog bean (Mdenyanthes trifoliata), the marsh bedstraw (Galium 
palustre) and its variety elongatum, the marsh and the heath louseworts (Pedicularis palustris, P. 
sylvatica), the bog stitchwort (Stellaria uliginosa), the ivy-leaved crowfoot (Ranunculus hederaceus), 
a large form of the common spearwort (R. Flammula), the scorpion grass (AZyosotis cespitosa), 
the starworts Callitriche hamulata and C. platycarpa. ‘The cotton grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) is 
peculiarly plentiful, and the sedge vegetation includes the very local Carex canescens, besides C. 
pultcaris, C. rostrata, C. disticha, C. leporina, C. flava, C. echinata, C. acutiformis, C, Goodenowit, 
and great tussocks of C. paniculata. Scirpus setaceus is local, and Lotus uliginosus and the marsh 
willow-herb (Epilobium palustre) also are found. 
On the soil reclaimed from the bog there is a considerable growth of the rare hemp 
nettle (Galeopsis speciosa), discovered here by Mr. Saunders in 1883; the borage (Borage 
officinalis) as well as a form of the prickly comfrey (Symphytum asperrimum) also occur, and the 
North American snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus) is semi-naturalized. 
There are remains of alder coppices, showing that at one time the vegetation must have 
been in great part woodland, and here and there a bush of the grey willow (Salix cinerea) 
and much more rarely S. aurita occur. The rushes include Funcus supinus, F. acutiflorus, F. 
lamprocarpus, F. conglomeratus and F. effusus. Luzula or Funcoides multiflora and its variety 
erecta are frequent; here and there are patches of ling (Calluna Erica), and on the drier 
parts may be occasionally seen Poa pratensis as the var. subcerulea as well as Festuca ovina 
and its variety pa/udosa. Molinia varia, Phragmites communis, Glyceria fluitans, Agrostis vulgaris, 
Steglingia decumbens, the pond-weed Potamogeton polygonifoltus, Pour., and the form ericetorum, 
have been observed. 
The Lower Greensand about Ampthill affords abundance of the cress Teesdalia nudi- 
caulis, of the scorpion grasses MLyosotis collina and M. versicolor, of the chickweed Ceras- 
tium semidecandrum, which Abbot mistook for C. pumilum, the buck’s-horn (Plantago Coronopus), 
the hair grass (Aira precox), the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), the hawkweed Hieracium 
boreale, the vetch Vicia angustifolia and its variety Bobartii, the sheep’s scabious (‘fasione montana), 
the holly (Idex Aquifolium), the heath hair grass (Deschampsia flexuosa), the meadow saxifrage 
(Saxifraga granulata), the thale cress (Sisymbrium thalianum), the broom Cytisus scoparius, the 
clovers Trifolium arvense, T. filiforme and T. striatum, the bird’s-foot Ornithopus perpusillus, the 
sandwort Buda rubra, etc. 
The chalk downs afford a characteristic flora, and some very local species are 
found on the Barton Hills. Among these rarities are the pasque flower (Anemone Pulsatilla), 
the mountain cat’s-foot (Antennaria dioica), and the blue milk vetch (Astragalus dantcus). 
Abbot found a cress (Draba muralis), which was figured in English Botany from a Bedford 
specimen, but the plant appears to be extinct, and it was probably introduced and not indige- 
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