BRISTOL BOTANY, I9IO. 
25 
grassy limestone slopes are not conspicuously rich in species, 
thoug-h they carry a profusion of Anthyllis and Geranium colum- 
hinum ; but the deligfhtfully fresh air and extensive prospect over 
the entire Vale of Berkeley, which are to be enjoyed on the flat 
summit, compensate to some extent for the poverty of the flora. 
The pure white state of the common Self-heal ( Prunella vulgaris ) 
may catch the eye amid the upland turf, and should the observer 
be a reader of the Saturday Review he will remember an instruc- 
tive article on albino variations, which appeared in that Journal 
a short time since, from the charming* pen of Canon Vaug’han. 
From this bold outcrop the ground falls but little towards Milbury 
Heath ; in fact, as the road passes on to the New Red Sandstone 
it rises to an elevation of 350 feet above the sea. No heath, in 
the literal sense, now remains ; for the land is enclosed and arable. 
The weeds of cultivation, however, are of value. That lover of 
a sandy soil, the rare Night-flowering Catchfly ( Silene noctijiora ), 
occurs thinly scattered among the crops ; together with the curious 
crimson-haired variety of the Corn Poppy (var. Pryorii) also con- 
fined, with us, to the same formation. Far more rarely we meet 
with Poppies whose peduncles are clothed in pink or orange ; 
but neither of these forms, so far, has been deemed worthy of a 
scientific name. Early in the life of these plants, before the 
unopened flowers rise upright in expansion, the tinted hairs are 
crowded up together, and then are much more readily observed 
than at maturity, when the lengthening flower-stalks have placed 
a perceptible interval between each individual hair. 
And here I am reminded that those corn-field weeds, the 
Fumitories, common enough in arable land and gardens elsewhere 
throughout the country, are singularly scarce in the neighbourhood 
of Bristol. Even that one known by the name of Common 
Fumitory (Fumaria officinalis) is somewhat rare ; while such other 
species as we possess — F. densiflora^ F. purpurea^ F. Boraei^ 
F confusay and F. pallidiflora^ occur either as single plants or in 
trivial patches, isolated and fugitive, repressed by some inexplic- 
able adverse influence. For example, the present distribution of 
F. Boraei in the district is as follows : — one tiny plant near Iron 
Acton ; one at Fishponds ; another, just as small, among mangolds 
at Clapton-in-Gordano ; and a fourth near Wrington. 
On the descent to the ancient and still thriving little town of 
Thornbury there stands, as I write, a wide field of Sainfoin, 
interspersed with luxuriant tufts of a rare foreign grass — the 
Bromus patulus. No doubt it was sown with the crop, and with 
it will be likely enough to disappear ; for these aliens, when they 
gain a temporary foothold on our soil, seldom ripen seed and 
become established. 
The sandstone series of rocks continues beyond Thornbury as 
far as Oldbury, Littleton, and Hill ; and then we pass from well- 
wooded hills to the alluvial flats which fringe the Severn Sea. 
