NOTES on the BOTANY of WIDNES. 
By the Rev. T. S. Lea, M.A. 
[Read January 12th, 1900.] 
I HAVE many doubts as to whether a paper of this kind 
has any right to expect a place in the records of the 
Liverpool Biological Society. One doubt is, that I can 
only represent it as the casual observations of one season. 
However, as some unscientific person has lately been 
making rash statements about ‘‘ not a blade of grass,” I 
venture to give a rough sketch of what does grow at 
Widnes. 
It will be convenient to take the plants according to 
the stations were they were found. I first turned my 
attention to the waste tips, huge agereeations of chemical 
refuse, level at the top and steeply banked at the sides. 
The rain that falls on these soaks in rapidly and decom- 
poses the stuff so that what exudes at the bottom is a 
noisome fluid, acid and sulphureous, varying in hue 
_ through many shades of green and yellow. No vegetation 
can live in this; but one grass, Agropyrum repens, grows In 
extraordirfary proximity to it. But on the surface things 
are different. 
I give a list of a score or so of weeds which have 
obtained a footing. The common dock (Rumex acutus), 
abounds and I do not think I have ever seen the mouse- 
ear chickweed (Cerastuwm vulgatum) in such abundance 
as on the waste tip at Cuerdley. The flowers were fine 
and large, and an innumerable crop of seedlings has come 
up this autumn. Grasses, such as Holcus mollis, Agrostis 
vulgaris, Poa annua, Loliwm perenne, and the greater 
willow herb, Hpilobvum hirsutum, occur. But the soil 
