120 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 
of man, observation is naturally that winch should first 
be taught. And in this highly artificial and crowded town life 
of ours, so fraught with evil—social, moral, physical, and 
intellectual,—it is of more than ordinary importance that 
the child shall have its life so attuned as to vibrate with ease 
to the touch of natural beauty, that it shall have every 
inducement placed in its way to forsake the crowded streets 
and alleys, the drawing-room and the study as well as the gin 
palace and the beershop, and seek by contact with Nature in 
the fields and lanes, the hills and the vallevs, fresh inspiration 
wherewith to charm the drudgery of its daily toil for bread. 
(To be continued.) 
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 
BY WM. MATHEWS, M. A. 
( Continued from page 95.) 
“ The Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter and 
Topographical and Statistical Journal” was published in 
Worcester from 1828 to 1832. It is in the Worcester Public 
Library, and has been examined for me by Mr. Towndrow. 
Three volumes only appeared: Yol. I., 1828-29; Yol. II., 
1830-31 ; Yol. III., 1831-32. The first volume only contains 
any matter germane to the Botany of the County of 
Worcester. 
No. 1 (August, 1828) contains an essay on the “ Medical 
'Topography of Worcestershire,” which appears, however, to 
be restricted to the neighbourhood of Malvern. The author, 
whose name is not given, states that “ specimens of Genista 
anglica, Ononis arvensis, Ulex europieus and nanus ( (fail'd ) 
are scattered about the hills; but, excepting the Grasses, the 
Ferns are by far the most abundant plants, filling the valleys, 
while the Dwarf Fern (Polypodium vuhjare?) gives a green 
covering to the rocks; the Viola tricolor flowers in abundance.” 
He further remarks that “ the plants which seem to have 
claimed these hills as their own, are the Digitalis purpurea, 
of which a white variety is often met with, and the Hyoscy- 
amus niger, very abundant on the North Hill.” appearing 
whenever the soil is disturbed. The author next gives a 
short list of plants, copied in the main from previous writers, 
as obvious errors are repeated, but containing, inter alia, 
Acer campestris and Acer Pseudo-platanus. He concludes by 
saying that “ in some parts of the Hilly Limestone country 
we occasionally meet with the Potentilla verna, more parti¬ 
cularly in the neighbourhood of Malvern. Some of the 
