THE FLOEA OF EAST SOMERSET. 

 By H. F. Parsons, M.D. 



[abstract,] 



At the annual meeting of the Somerset Arcliasological and Natural 

 History Society, held at Frome on August 10th, 11th, and 12th, 

 a paper was read by Dr. Parsons, late of Beckington, secretary to the 

 Goole Scientific Society, on the Flora of the Eastern Border of 

 Somerset. The flora of that neighbourhood was described as being 

 in the main just such as a botanist would expect to find in an inland, 

 slightly elevated, calcareous district in the south of England. Of the 

 1370 species enumerated in the body of the compendium to Cyhele 

 Britannica, 632 had been observed by Dr. Parsons in that neighbour- 

 hood j of these 632, 44)9 were of British or British-English type of 

 distribution, and 121 of English type, 34 approached the Germanic, 

 and 10 each the Atlantic and Scottish types, while eight were of 

 local or doubtful type. The excess of Germanic over Atlantic species 

 in a district so far to the west as to be included in the Peninsula 

 province of Watson, was attributed partly to the greater richness in 

 species of the coast of England, and partly to the circumstance that 

 in the neighbourhood the palaeozoic rocks of the West were to a 

 great extent covered up by the oolitic and cretaceous strata of the 

 south and east. The absence of Buhia peregrina and Sedum Anglicum, 

 — two of the most abundant Atlantic species, — from habitats that 

 might seem especially appropriate, was particularly noticed. 



Of the great variety of strata in the district almost all are more 

 or less calcareous, the chief exceptions being the upper green-sand 

 and the old red sandstone. The marked difference between the flora 

 on the sandy and calcareous strata was pointed out — a difference so 

 striking as to enable one to tell at a glance the nature of the soil. 

 Among the characteristic plants of the limestone were mentioned 

 Hippocrepis comosa, Astragalus Glycyphyllos, Genista tinctoria (at one 

 time much gathered here for dyeing), Poterium Sanguisorba, Daucus 

 Carota, Pastinaca sativa, Torilis injesta and nodosa^ Senecio cerucifolius, 

 Erigeron acris, Picris Hieracioides, Calamintha officinalis, Gentiana 

 Amarella^ Chlora perfoliata, and Ophrys apifera. 



A very marked calcareous flora was to be found on the barren wet 

 marls of the lower oolite (forest marble and fullers' earth) ; on these 

 soils orchids were especially abundant, as many as twelve species 



