28 
BRISTOL BOTANY, I9IO. 
Another variation of a well-known species has been observed 
on Chelvey Batch, a bit of wild limestone woodland on high ground 
beyond Backwell. This is var. splende 7 is of CratcEgus Oxyacantha 
— the common Hawthorn — characterized by fruit of unwonted size, 
about four times heavier than that of the type. In 1909, when 
all the trees flowered and fruited in unexampled profusion, the 
branches of this thorn bent down under the weight of haws just 
as those of orchard trees often do when crops are plenteous. Six 
ripe fruit weighed seven grammes, while six ordinary haws of 
average size were under two grammes. The measured dimensions 
averaged 15 mm. by 12 mm., against 9 by 8 in type monogyna. 
Doubtless this is the Oxyacanthus folio et fructu majore from 
Oxfordshire in Merret’s Pinax (1667) ; and the Oxyacantha vulgaris 
porno majore found by Sherard in Northamptonshire. — Ray Syn. 
ed. iii., p. 454 (1724). One other tree of splendens has been 
reported by Miss Livett from a low cliff at Walton-by-Clevedon. 
It was undoubtedly by good fortune that these remarkable thorns 
were noticed at the right season ; when they, in common with 
most others, had over-bloomed themselves. Only a small handful 
of flowers, on the topmost branches, came out this year, followed, 
of course, by a corresponding failure of fruit. 
From the Backwell range, as we look across the wide valley at 
a point where the New Red Sandstone gives place to the Coal- 
measures of Nailsea, an extremely fine view can be enjoyed of 
the Tyntesfield domain, Wraxall Hill and Church, the slopes of 
Cadbury and the Clevedon hills. A central object is the Church, 
beautifully situated on the hillside opposite, amid much woodland, 
a good deal of which is open to those who care to ramble so far 
afield. Most varied and interesting is the vegetation about Wraxall. 
At one spot on a wood-border grows a quantity of the Stinking 
Hellebore ( Hellehorus foetidus almost certainly indigenous ; and 
the Rectory Wood contains an abundance of Madder, Spurge 
Laurel, and Cromwell ( Lithospermum officinale ). Above the wood 
there is some open ground, a barren stony warren, redolent of 
thyme and marjoram and sustaining a close-ranked crop of Plough- 
man’s Spikenard (Inula Conyza) with other xerophilous species. 
Beside the Common Thyme, and equally aromatic, is the rarer 
Thyjnus ovatusj one of the new segregates with which we shall 
have to become familiar. The Autumnal Gentian f Gentiana 
Amarella) is scattered around. Would that someone could produce 
a Bristol specimen of G. campestris ! Among plenty of Common 
Centaury ( Erythrcea Cejitaurium)^ a much smaller plant of bushy 
habit, with a smaller corolla and flowering a fortnight later, is 
fairly frequent. This is E. pulchella^ or E. ramosissima as the name 
now stands in our lists ; a submaritime species not often found far 
from the salt spray. A new and unexpected inland locality is right 
welcome ; compensating so far as this plant is concerned for its 
loss on the Berrow dune-marsh, now converted by the golfers to a 
smooth and level lawn. 
