Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/100

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A HISTORY OF SUSSEX There is perhaps a greater diversity of soil in this district than in any other. In the north we have sands and sandstones alternating with beds of clay, and on these St. Leonards Forest of about 10,000 acres, in which many interesting plants previously referred to occur. The marsh and bog lands at the foot of the Downs, as at Chiltington Common, contain numerous species which delight the botanist, such as Utricularia minor, formerly questionable in Sussex, Potentilla Comarum, Menyanthes trifoliata, Hydrocharis Morsus-rancs, and Pilularia glohulifera, rare in the county. Further south are the Amberley Wild Brooks, in the valley of the Arun, an immense marshy tract for Sussex, which when flooded in winter resembles a lake in dimensions. Here grew formerly the black crowberry, Empetrum nigrum, perhaps not extinct, and the cranberry, Faccinium oxycoccos, now rare, but which formerly so abounded that its fruit sold at a shilling a quart, and here are to be found Stellaria glauca, Hypericum elodes, Myrica Gale, Viola palustris, Eriophorum vaginatum, and Carex teretiuscula. Vegetable mould here first appears, and then from four to five feet of peat on a dark blue silt or clay. The banks of the Arun well repay investigation, and near Arundel, on both sides of the river affected by the tide, we have Scirpus carinatus and S. triqueter, both very rare, the latter being found only by the Arun and the Thames. Clymping Sands near its mouth afford good botanising. Among the rarer plants of this district are : — Ranunculace^ Helleborus foetidus L. Crucifer^ Draba muralis L. Erysimum cheiranthoides L. Lepidium ruderale L. LeGUMINIFERjE Trifolium ochroleucum L. T. sufFocatum L. Rosacea Rubus fissus Lirtdl. R. carpinifolius fV. y N. R. plicatus W. y A'. Haloragiace^ Callitriche truncata Guss. Sedu Crassulacea album V. micranthum Bast. CaPRIFOLIACEjE Lonicera Xylosteum L. Rubiace«  Rubia peregrina L. Campanulace^ Campanula Rapunculus L. Ericace^ Pyrola media Swartz,. Gentianace^ Cicendia filiformis Delarb. Scrophulariace^ Verbascum pulverulentum Vill. Labiate Melittis Melissophyllum L. Boraginace^ Anchusa sempervirens L. Myosotis sylvatica Hofm. PlNGUICULACE^ Utricularia minor L. U. intermedia Hayne EuPHORBIACE^ Euphorbia coralloiiies L. Amentifer^ Salix ambigua v. spathulata Ehrh. Cyperace^ Scirpus carinatus Sot. S. triqueter L. Carex elongata L. C. teretiuscula Good. Gramine«  Calamagrostis lanceolata Roth. Leersia oryzoides Sifartz FiLICES Lastraea Thelypteris Presl. Charace^ Nitella gracilis Agardh. N. mucronata A. Braun. N. translucens Agardh. N. flexilis Agardh. III. The Adur The confines of this district are the Arun boundary from the sea to Plummet's Plain, and thence the Ouse boundary to Rottingdean and the sea a little east of Brighton. It is drained by the Adur, whose e.astern and western waters coalesce about a mile and a half west of Hcnfield, and by its numerous tributaries ; also by the Wellesbourne, a small in- dependent stream which rises near Patcham, and passing by Preston reaches the sea at Brigiiton. To the north of the Downs we have that part of the Weald in which Borrcr made his researches, and in which most of his herbarium specimens were collected. The plants of the 54