BOTANY abounds near Beachy Head. In our hangers we have the brown bird's nest {Neottia nidus-avis) and the tway blade [Listera ovata), and there too we meet with the helleborines. The large white helleborine {Cephalanthera grandifiora), known in Sussex as the egg orchis, a hand- some species, is common ; the lesser white (C. ensif'olid) occurs near Goodwood, but is rare ; the broad-leaved helleborine {Epipactis latifolid), of purplish hue, is not uncommon westward. At Harting we have the narrow-leaved helleborine (E. media), and the rare and beautiful violet helleborine {E. violacea) at Stansted. We must not omit the pretty green musk orchis [Herminium momrchis), which occasionally peeps up amongst tall moss, as at Barlavington and Duncton. The latest flower- ing species is the fragrant ladies' tresses [Spiranthes autumnalis). 3. Plants of the Weald. — The Weald Clay, says Professor Hull, forms a depressed tract of country between the elevated ground of the centre and the ridges of the Lower Greensand and Chalk, which enclose the Wealden area all round its circumference except along the eastern coast-line from Beachy Head to Shakespeare's Cliff near Dover. The Wealden area sinks down almost to the level of the high-water at Pevensey. The breadth of the Weald is from five to ten miles, and its length from thirty to forty miles. The Forest Ridge, which contains St. Leonards Forest and Ashdown Forest, is that portion of the county which, uniting with the Weald, forms the north-easterly division, stretch- ing from Fairlight Down by Crowborough to St. Leonards Forest, and terminating gradually in the western part of the county in the angle formed by the sandhills of Petworth on the one side and by Black Down and Leith Hill on the other. It is composed of the more elevated portions of the sands and sandstones. The soil consists of a sandy loam, or iron sandstone, or of a poor black vegetable sand upon a soft clay marl. It is for the most part exceedingly barren. In Sussex the existing forests of St. Leonards, Ashdown, Tilgate and Waterdown are portions of the primeval forest of Anderida, which through the Roman and Saxon eras remained entire, and is spoken of by Bede in A.D. 731 as thick and inaccessible. At the time of the Conquest its dense woods were beyond the pale of the Norman survey, as a glance at the excellent map prefixed to the Sussex Domesday, published by the Sussex Archsological Society, plainly proves. A view of the Weald from the Devil's Dyke shows us how much of woodland still remains. This, together with its heaths, commons and bogs present many interesting localities to the botanist. As affecting its vegetation, it may be noted that in the Wealden district the temperature is more variable, and the rainfall heavier, than that along the coast, which is due mainly to the large extent of forest land and the fact that the South Downs rise in the track of the rain clouds. And here, by the way, it may be noted that while more bright sunshine is registered in the south of England than in any other part of the kingdom, according to the latest records, Sussex seems the sunniest county in the country, a circumstance which doubtless has a favourable influence on its flora. I 49 7
