349 



LINCOLNSHmE BOG- AND MOORLAND PLANTS. 



Rev. WILLIAM FOWLER, M.A., 

 Vicar of Liversedge, Vorkshire ; Vice-President of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. 



In the Naturalist for April 1878, I gave a list of Lincolnshire Coast 

 Plants. Those, however, which are found in the bogs and moorland 

 are of greater interest, for two reasons — firstly, because they are less 

 common ; and secondly, because they are far more likely than the 

 sea-coast ones to become extinct. Drainage and cultivation have 

 already exterminated several interesting species once known to occur, 

 and there is no reason to doubt that, as the conversion of peat-bogs 

 and warrens into arable land goes on, many others will be sought for 

 in vain. In South Lincolnshire there is hardly a place remaining 

 where bog-plants can thrive j and some years ago I used to wonder 

 how it was I never came across plants recorded for that division. 

 But since then I have seen old maps representing the East Fen 

 district (which is now one of fertile corn-fields) as abounding in 

 pools, and have read of the thousands of wild ducks taken in decoys 

 and sent to the London market, as well as of the peat-moss in the 

 neighbourhood of Friskney, from which, in favourable seasons, as 

 many as 4,000 pecks of cranberries were gathered. Most of the 

 Southern division was at one time doubtless an immense swamp, on 

 the sides of and through which any botanist might well love to 

 wander. Malaxis paludosa is recorded for Lincolnshire, and may 

 perhaps still be found, but Senecio paludosus and S. palustris are almost 

 certainly extinct. The best stations for bog and moorland plants are 

 in the Northerji division, the peat mosses and ' commons ' that lie at 

 the foot of the Oolitic and Liassic ranges of hills being most pro- 

 ductive. In the following list, stations are only given for those 

 plants which, in Lincolnshire, are not common ; the plants for which 

 no stations are given may, therefore, be considered as generally 

 occurring in all places suitable to their growth. 

 Viola palustris. (In a paper on ' The Botany of Lincolnshire,' in 



White's Directory for 1872, V. lactea and V. stagnina are said to 



occur.) 



Drosera rotundifolia, D. intermedia, and D. anglica all grow 

 together on Scotton and Manton Commons, and the two 

 former in many other peaty places. 



Hypericum elodes. Very fine about Laughton. 



Rhamnus Frangula. Tower Moor, Horncastle ; Laughton Low 

 Warren. 



Genista anglica. Field near Broughton Wood. Manton Common. 

 Comarum palustre. 



Nov. 1887. 



