24 
BRISTOL BOTANY, I9IO. 
about is the Leechpool, an extensive swamp, probably still in much 
the same condition as in Saxon times, when the Royal Forest and 
Chase of King-swood covered the whole area. Here we have been 
introduced by Miss Roper and her brother to two marsh plants, 
unknown elsewhere in our Gloucestershire division — the Buckbean 
( Menyanthes ) and the Lesser Water Plantain ( Alisnia ranimcu- 
hides ) — both in great plenty. In addition, the swamp yields an 
abundance of Oenanthe Jistulosa, Helosciadium inundatiim^ and 
Scirpus JluitanSy with Vei'onica scutellata more sparingly, and 
many sedges. The past summer must have been in some way 
peculiarly favourable to the Veronica. It was believed to be 
entirely absent from the country lying between Bristol and the 
Cotswolds, and yet in 1910 it turned up in the three widely separ- 
ated localities of the Leechpool, Lyde Green, and Siston Common. 
The last mentioned habitat had been walked over dozens of times 
before the Misses Cundall detected the plant. 
The good things just enumerated, the Buckbean in particular, 
are somewhat early flowerers, and are not to be reckoned among 
the charms of Autumn, for at the end of September they lie 
sleeping “ in their grassy tombs.” Yet at so late a season such 
a swamp as this is not devoid of interest to a keen observer, 
imbued with the spirit of enquiry. Some days of October — the 
month in which I write — had gone by when Mr. Bucknall, search- 
ing around the tussocky margin of the pool, discovered a nice 
clump of the rare and little known Rush, Juncus diffustis ; an 
intermediate, and possibly a hybrid, between J, effusus and 
J. infiexus. With this, my friend has made another important 
addition to the Bristol list of West Gloucestershire species. 
As regards that rich botanical depository, Yate Common itself, 
its treasures appear to be inexhaustible, partly, I suppose, because 
they need a good deal of looking for. It was from one of the boggy 
pits, which are frequent on the Common, that Mr. Bucknall 
obtained the first Gloucestershire specimens of Polygonum minus. 
This summer he has taken from a neighbouring pond another 
good plant ( Nitella opaca ), quite new both to the county flora 
and to that of the Bristol Coal-fields. The associated water plants 
are Ranunculus peltatus, Callitriche intermedia, and Scirpus 
fiuitans with its variety terrestre, a condensed caespitose form 
peculiar to wet mud. 
It is necessary here to make a brief allusion to a small stream 
that drains an area east of the Frome valley. For some distance 
below its source the Boyd runs through a flat and pastoral 
country, and in a meadow between Hinton and Pucklechurch its 
waters encompass a solitary growth of the true Bulrush ( Scirpus 
lacush'is), a plant of rare occurrence about Bristol away from the 
river Avon, and first noticed in this new locality by Mr. F. Samson. 
Turning once more towards the West, the easy ascent of 
Tytherington Hill by a new road becomes an invitation. The 
