70 
WARWICKSHIRE STOUR VALLEY AND ITS FLORA. 
ton. Ferns are remarkably rare in this valley. I have, 
however, seen Lastrea Jilix-mas var. Borreri, L. spinulosa, L. 
dilatata, Athyrium filix-fcemina, and the fine variety rhceticum 
at Great Wolford and Barton-on-the-Heath. Of woodland 
mosses, the more rare are Rypnum brevirostre, II. pillfer urn, 
H. striatum, Orthotrichum Lyellii in fruit, Poly triclium 
attenuatum, Pogonatum aloides, and Scapania nemorosa, all 
from Wolford Wood. 
Fields and pastures are always inviting, and few districts 
are more convenient to the botanist for a thorough exploration 
of these places than this Stour Valley, for here bridle roads 
and footways are a prevailing feature. Little that is really 
rare has at present been noticed, but of the more noteworthy 
the following may be mentioned:— Papaver lecoqii , Senebiera 
coronopus, Lychnis segetum, and Saxifraga granulata are all 
recorded from near Honington. All these are rare in the 
district: —Valerianella dentata, Picris hieracioides, P. echioides, 
Linaria spuria, L. elatine, L. viscida, Galeopsis ladanum, G . 
speciosa, Chenopodium polyspermum, and Orchis morio were 
also all found near Honington, Lambcote, and Halford, but I 
have not seen them elsewhere in this valley. Brassica nigra 
and B. alba occur near Great Wolford. Thlaspi ar cense, 
usually abundant in Lias soils, occurred as a single specimen 
at Wimpstone. Rhaphanus rhaphanistrum was very abundant 
at Tysoe, and here, also, I saw for the first time Chrysanthemum 
segetum . Alchemilla vulgaris I have not seen, but Mr. Gorle 
records it from Idlicote ; and the rare Spircea JUipendula is 
recorded by Mr. Townsend from Armscote, one of the few 
places in this district that I have not seen. 
The roads and lanes of a district are often specially 
interesting, and not unfrequently afford the botanist a better 
idea of what has been the prevailing flora of the district than 
he could gain from either woods, pastures, or fields. They 
are always of special interest to me, for it was in the lanes I 
took my first lessons in botany, and often still I linger by the 
banks redolent of violets, or bright with cheery speedwell, and 
look with the same old enthusiasm for the first primrose, or 
search the neglected wayside, among wavy ranks of poa and 
fescue and dogstail, or squat plantain, and sand-wort for some 
rarer and more prized weed. But in this district the wayside 
flora is poor, and mile after mile may be travelled with only 
an ever-recurring repetition of the same plants; whilst 1 
do not remember to have found more than one or two of the 
rarer plants, I have found several that are local in other parts 
of the county. Ranunculus auricomus ,and Viola Reichenbachiana, 
V. hirta , and V. odorata occur about Great Wolford, Honing- 
