Botanical Society of London. 



249 



their mineralogical ingredients in numberless varied proportions ; but 

 it must be understood, that the greater part of the mass is in a disin- 

 tegrated state, breaking up into angular fragments of every size, and 

 thus forming debris on and materials for soil at the base of the slopes, 

 while hard masses of granitic rock, weathering the atmospheric wear 

 and tear of centuries, are of comparatively rare occurrence. This 

 of course tends greatly to modify the capacity of these eminences as 

 depositaries of plants, and although rising up boldly in an insular 

 manner in the midst of a flat district, and with no superior heights 

 near at hand, their moderate altitude precludes the growth of any 

 alpine plants, while their complete exposure to the blaze of summer 

 even unfits them for subalpine species that grow in shady localities 

 further south. This may be instanced in the Saxifraga hypnoides, 

 which, though it grows in the moist recesses of the Cheddar Cliffs, 

 Somersetshire, is entirely absent from every part of this rocky range. 

 On the other hand, Sedum album, which no drought can destroy, 

 finds an appropriate home on the exposed cliffs of the principal hills 

 here, flowering when most other plants are completely withered and 

 burnt up by the intolerable heat. 



The Phanerogamous vegetation of the Malvern Hills is by no 

 means as varied or remarkable as might at first have been antici- 

 pated from its geographical position. But in fact the breadth of the 

 chain nowhere amounts to a mile, and for the most part does not 

 exceed half a mile. There are scarcely any longitudinal valleys, as 

 in only one place does the chain break distinctly into two parallel 

 heights, and throughout a distance of above nine miles there are but 

 five transverse ones. The average height of the chain above the level 

 of the sea is about 1000 feet, three of the highest hills attaining re- 

 spectively the altitude of 1300, 1350, and 1444 feet. According to 

 a very accurately taken barometrical observation by Mr. Addison of 

 Great Malvern, the Worcestershire Beacon, which as just stated is 

 1444 feet in height by the Ordnance Survey, is only 923 feet above 

 the Library at Great Malvern ; the slope at the base of the hills being 

 thus shown to be full 500 feet above the level of the Severn. 



Such a moderate elevation can scarcely be expected to yield plants 

 of an alpine kind, especially when the ravines, though not without 

 rocks, possess none of a very precipitous character, and the streams 

 that trickle down the hills have but very little relation to the torrents 

 that dash in thunder down the cliffs of stern and rugged mountainous 

 regions. The prevalence of a humid atmosphere from the excess of 

 western and southerly winds is very favourable to the growth of the 

 Cryptogamous tribes, more especially the Lichens, which are perhaps 

 in greater abundance and variety here than within the same space in 

 any other part of Britain. Indeed the late Mr. Purton, author of the 

 ' Midland Flora,' remarked, that even in Wales he scarcely observed 

 any Lichens that were not to be found upon the Malvern Hills. In 

 like manner the Mosses are very luxuriant and abundant on the 

 hills as well as in the woods around their bases, though the beautiful 

 genus Splachnum seems to be altogether absent. Jungermannice con- 

 stitute a great proportion of the investiture of the hills, though the 



Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Vol. ix. S 



