BOTANY is only as patches ; in fact, one of the types of heath vegetation, the blaeberry, or as it is called in the adjoining county of Buckingham, the huckleberry, is entirely absent, nor is there a winter green {Pyrola) re- corded, and the small cudweed {Filago minima) is extremely rare, while the wood sage [Teucrium ScoroJonia), which is one of the commonest plants over large areas of Devon and other counties, is one of our rarest species. The heaths (Calluna Erica, Erica cinerea and E. Tetralix) are extremely local, and indeed are absent from the greater portion of the county. Another heath-loving species, the golden rod (Solidago Virgaurea), which is quite a feature in many of the western counties, with us is limited to two or three localities, and the buck's-horn plantain [Plantago Coronopus), one of the commonest plants on the sandy heaths and road- sides in some parts of Berks and Hants, I have not been able to find in the county, although there is good evidence that at one time it existed on the Billing Lings. This species is also very rare in Oxfordshire and north Bucks. The common chamomile [Anthemis nobilis) appears to be absent as a native plant, and the cudweeds (Filago germanica and F. spathu- lata) have not been recorded. Peat is now almost absent from the county, and we lack those de- posits of it which in conjuncture with springs give sphagnum bogs, which uliginous plants delight in, and consequently many of these, as we have seen, are absent ; as examples we may mention the common small skull-cap [Scutellaria minor), the chaff-weed (Centunculus minimus), the all- seed {Millegrana Radiola), the sedges [Carex diandra or teretiuscula, C. canes- cens or curta and C. elongata), the sundews (Drosera rotundifolia and D. longifolia), the Lancashire asphodel {Narthecium ossifragum), the sweet gale [Myrica Gale), the creeping willow [Salix repens), which are plants fre- quently met with in many counties on peaty soils, while such widely distributed and common plants as the sedges [Carex echinata and C. rostrata) are very rare with us, and the butterwort [Pinguicula vulgaris), which we know from the Phytologia of Wm. How, published in 1650, was once common in the county, is now limited to a very few localities, and the same remark may be also used to describe the occurrence of the bog pimpernel [Anagallis tenella) and the grasses [Sieglingia decumbens and Molinia varia). Other plants which also delight in peat are absent, or are not recorded on satisfactory authority for the county. These include the poisonous water dropwort [CEnanthe crocata) mentioned in Goodyer's MS, of 1650 as being seen in the ditches near Peterborough, the water avens [Geum rivale), the creeping water forget-me-not [Myosotis repens), and the sedge ( Carex Jiliformis) . Again, many lacustrine species are lacking, as we possess no large natural piece of water such as the broads of East Anglia, the llyns of Wales, the Scottish lochs, or the Salopian meres. It may be urged that in the reservoirs of Daventry, Byfield and Naseby we have such large expanses of water, but these are of recent origin, much too recent to yield a large number of species, although doubtless in time to these places will be brought by birds and other agencies additional plants. 51
