Moss : Changes in the Halifax Flora. 



brought over from Burnley and Rochdale by the prevailing west 

 winds. The chief sufferers, however, among the moorland 

 plants are these which inhabit wet places. Their disappearance 

 is to be accounted for by the drainage of the moors, by the 

 making of reservoirs at the heads of the cloughs, by the 

 cultivation of heather to provide cover for the grouse, and by 

 the tilling of the ground at the moor edges. The following 

 have all disappeared through these causes : — ' 8 Schcenns albus ' 

 = Rhyncospora alba Vahl., ' 16 Lysimachia te?iella : ' = Anagallis 

 tenella Linn. , '36 Drosera longifolia, ''171 Ophris cordata = Listera, ' 

 ' 174 Carex dioica,' ' 183 Myrica gale,' ' 184 Juniperus communis ,' 

 198-200 Lycopodium clavatum, L. alpinu?n, L. Selago. 



The disappearance of two species can positively.be accounted 

 for by the increase of tillage. 



' 25 Campanula hederacea ' remained in Cob Clough in pretty 

 much the same condition from 1775 to 1898. On visiting the 

 station in September of the latter year I found that of two, 

 undrained rough pastures in which it was abundant, one had 

 been drained and manured for the growth of hay, and the other, 

 wet, rocky, and heathery though it had previously been, had 

 been ploughed and converted into a field of oats. Only a very 

 little of the plant now remains. 



'30 Athamanta meum'' = Meum Athamanticum Jacq. King 

 (1844) states that the field in which it formerly grew had been 

 ploughed to grow potatoes. He appears to have taken the 

 only specimen which was left ! 



Just as most of the lowland types which have disappeared 

 near Halifax belong to Watson's ' English ' type, so most of 

 the moorland species which have gone belong to his ' Scottish • 

 type, a type of plant in which Halifax is rather rich. 



III. Here I include those plants which have almost dis- 

 appeared owing to the depredations of pedestrians, herbalists, 

 gardeners, and naturalists. These are mostly either ferns or 

 plants with showy flowers, or plants of some rarity : — ' 40 Con- 

 vallaria majalisj ' 53 Paris quadrifolia ,' ' 55 Pyrola minor, * i 189 

 Osmunda regalis/ and many others. 



It is perhaps worthy of note that none of these are quite 

 extinct, though most of them from being abundant have become 

 verv rare. I have good authority for saving - that one florist has 

 recently been responsible for the extermination of the Beech 

 Fern in Bogden Clough, Rishworth ; and that another has well- 

 nigh eradicated two species of Forget-me-not (Myosotis palnstris 

 and M. sylvaticd) from Elland Park Wood. All three plants 



Naturalist. 



