VOL. XX. (3) 
FIELD MEETINGS 
181 
Railway Station at Bourton produced several aliens of some interest, including 
the sandwort ( Arenaria tenuifolia), the fleabane ( Erigeron canadense), and the 
canary grass ( Phalaris canariensis) , mostly in single plants. But the search 
for aliens, though it may fill a few spare minutes as an alternative to “ kicking 
your heels,” is in itself hardly “ legitimate botany.” 
There are several marsh species missing from our records for this area, 
such as Stellaria palustris : it is by no means impossible that good finds of 
this kind may yet be made, it is just the sort of country which should produce 
them. But the great gap in the flora is that caused by the absence of old 
woods (like Guiting Wood, some miles away), which of course would produce 
a group of species standing by itself and adding greatly to the wealth of this 
small area, as e.g. Rubus saxatilis, Polygonatum officinale, and lily of the 
valley. 
Additional note by the Rev. H. J. Riddelsdell : — 
While at Bourton-on-the-Water some of the members asked why I 
gathered " all those briars,” and I said that they were to be sent to a specialist 
to be named. They have been sent and have come back, and enquirers 
may like to know the results. On this day I gathered 18 specimens; they 
are assigned to 13 distinct forms, and 3 unnamed transitional forms. 
Only in two cases were there duplicates. Quite a number were new to 
East Gloucestershire. The most interesting were Omissa, Micrantha, 
Amansii, Curticola, Senticosa, Stenocarpa, Globularis, Adscita, Verticilla- 
canlha, Leiostyla. 
Botanical research and lunch having occupied several hours, it was found 
on reaching the high ground of Buggilde (or “ Buckle ”) Street that there 
was insufficient time to examine the whole of the interesting features near 
that part of the ancient road within a quarter of a mile of Wagborough 
Bush. 
Mr. J. W. Gray, therefore, only briefly referred to the occurrence, in a 
field known as “ Gorm’s Hole,” of quartz and quartzite pebbles and flints 
which form the highest known Drift on the Cotteswolds. The field is on the 
eastern side of the main road, at an elevation of about 700 feet O.D., about 
200 yards to the east of the lane leading from Harford Bridge to Slaughter 
Manor, and the pebbles and flints are found mainly in the clayey surface soil 
near a small depression which may indicate the former existence of a pit from 
which gravel has been taken. If this explanation is correct it would account 
for a part of the name by which the field is known. The origin of the name 
“ Gorm ” has not been ascertained. 
Stonesfield Slates, of the Great Oolite series, from quarries near the road 
are used in walls and other buildings in the neighbourhood. The Wagborough 
quarry in the Inferior Oolite series was then inspected and attention was 
called to the absence of several beds in the section, such as the Trigonia Grits 
and the Oolite Marl which occur at Leckhampton Hill and other places on the 
Cotteswolds where the beds of the Inferior Oolite are more fully represented. 
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