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A BOTAmCAL VISIT TO DELAMEEE FOREST. 



On Delamere Forest there are two Lakes, (or wliat are called Meres in 

 Cheshire,) of considerable size, these I visited last July, for the purpose of 

 seeing their botanical productions. Oakmere was my principal destination, 

 but on the route I had to pass Lechmere, which I think must be derived 

 from the word Leech, as I was informed a few years ago, a great quantity of 

 Leeches were captured from the Lake, for surgical purposes. On the margin 

 of the Mere, I saw sparingly Alisma ■ranunculoides, (3. repeiis, Sparganium 

 minimum, and Scutellaria minor, in a bog at a little distance was growing 

 ' Garex filiformis, Myosotis ccesjjitosa, Hypericum- elodes, Utricularia minor, 

 Drosera intermedia, D. rotundifolia, Scirpus Jluitans, Ranunculus Lingua, 

 Madiola millegrana, Lysimachia vulgaris, Andromeda polifolia, Menyantlies 

 trifoliata, Comarum palustre, Eriopliorum angustifolium, and Anagallis 

 tenella; in the Mere I observed the two Water Lilies, Nuphar lutea^ 

 .Nymphoea alha, Myriopliyllum alterniflorum, and Potamogeton heterophyl- 

 Hus. After spending an hour very agreeably at Lechmere, I proceeded to 

 I Oakmere, a distance of nearly three miles from the former, having to pass 

 on my way the celebrated Abbey Arms, or Yale Royal Hotel which is stated 

 in White's History of Cheshu'e, to have been a Monastery, founded in the 

 reign of Edward I., and dissolved at the Reformation in the reign of Henry 

 ^VIIL ; it has still a venerable appearance, and attracts much attention as a 

 relic of the past. Not far from the old Abbey, we come to Oakmere, which 

 is well known to botanists, from its name being associated with the rare 

 Calamagrostis stricta, this being its only habitat in England if not in 

 Britain ; it does not appear to be very plentiful, and is confined to a few 

 yards of boggy ground ; all the land under cultivation hereabouts a few years 

 ago was covered either with bogs or Woods, and it is to be feared the heath, 

 which glories in being the locality for this rare grass will soon share the 

 same fate. I did not notice many rarities at Oakmere, but amongst the rest 

 were collected TeesdaVia nudicaidis, Littorella lacustris, Populus alba, and 

 Pogonatum alpinum. Utriciduria minor and Lycopodium inundatum., have 

 been found on the borders of the Mere but I did not succeed in my search 

 for them.— R. 



