326 



J. GILBERT BAKER : CUMBERLAND BOTANY. 



Scirpus coespitosus, Aira flexuosa, 



Eriophorum angustifolium, Molinia cserulea, 



Agrostis vulgaris, Nardus stricta. 



The hills are much more grassy and less heathy than our ordinary 

 Yorkshire moors. The charm of the district to a south-country 

 botanist lies in the abundance of wild wood (trees and shrubs) that 

 clothes the rocky banks of the deep river ghylls. Here oak and ash 

 and wych-elm, birdcherry and hawthorn and blackthorn, and many 

 more have grown in abundance and luxuriance, undisturbed from time 

 immemorial. The stream which drains the district is the Irthing, with 

 many tributaries, which falls into the Eden not far from Carlisle. At 

 Gilsland and higher up, the Irthing forms the boundary between 

 Northumberland and Cumberland, but my notes refer solely to the 

 Cumberland side of the river. They do not reach further down the 

 valley than Brampton, where the red sandstone of the Carlisle plain 

 begins, and as regards elevation belong entirely to the upper half of 

 Watson's mid-agrarian zone. Here, as at the Lakes, cultivated fields 

 are few in number. There is no wheat, so that they are all barley, 

 oats, turnips, potato-fields, or plots of garden ground, so that many 

 of the common agrestal weeds are absent, and many of those usually 

 common are scarce, and as at the Lakes houses and cultivated fields 

 cease upwards, not with the limit of the super-agrarian, but with that 

 of the mid-agrarian, zone. No doubt it will be a capital country for 

 mosses, lichens, and fungi, but to these I paid no attention. 



Ranniiculacese. — Anemone nemorosa, plentiful. Ranunculus hede- 

 raceus replaces aquatilis • I saw a ditch many yards long crammed 

 full of it. P. Flammula, acris, and repens, and Caltha palustris, all 

 common. 



Berberacese. — Berberis vulgaris, hedges near Rosehill, in the angle 

 between the Irthing and Poltross Burn, not native. 



Papaveracese. — Pap aver dulnum, plentiful in the cultivated fields 

 at Brampton and sparingly higher up the valley at Low Row and 

 Nether Denton. P. Rhceas, not seen. P. Argemone, sparingly at 

 Brampton. 



Cruciferae. — Sinapis arvensis and Brassica Papa, neither plentiful. 

 Sisymbrium officinale, road-sides at Brampton. S. Alliaria, woods at 

 Naworth and hedge-banks at Brampton. Cheirauthus Cheiri, plentiful 

 on the walls of Lanercost Priory. Cardamine pratensis and hirsuta, 

 both common. C. sylvatica, damp woods at Gilsland Spa and 

 Naworth. Nasturtium officinale and Capsella, both common. 



Violacese. — Viola palustris, sylvatica, and tricolor, all three common, 

 the latter both type and arvensis, with intermediate forms. 



Droseracese. — Drose?-a rotundifolia only seen. . 



Naturalist, 



