Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/118

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF KENT in marshes at Plumstead and Higham, was suspected by him to be Festuca prociimbens x G. distans ; being almost intermediate and always accompanied by both species. G. Borreri, Bab. is locally abundant in muddy salt marshes of the north and east, its one station on the south coast being at Dymchurch. Festuca uniglumis, Soland. grows sparingly on Deal sandhills ; together with plenty of F. ambigua, Le Gall, also found about Sandwich and Littlestone. F. sylvatica, Vill. is a Tunbridge Wells rarity. F. loliacea. Curt. {F. pratensis x Lo/ium perenne) has occa- sionally been met with. Bromus madritensis, L., was once found upon the beach at Walmer and at Deal ; several allied species are casuals near Woolwich. B. interruptus, Druce, hitherto detected only at Eltham, Dartford and Barham, may easily have been passed by as a form of B. mollis, L. Lolium temulentiwj, L. (darnel) is uncommon. Our mari- time forms of Agropyron (T'riticum) are well represented in the county. Hordeum syhaticitm, Huds. is reported from Riverhill (district 8), Hawk- hurst and Cranbrook (district 9) ; the two last seem unlikely places for it. Flymus arenarius, L. (lyme grass) really grows at Dover, as alleged ; this makes the Thanet stations given by Flower less improb- able than we had supposed. FiLiCES. — In the suburban districts it is now difficult to find any fern except bracken, and the rarer species have been sadly thinned out elsewhere. Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, Sm. (filmy fern), Asplenium lanceolatum, Huds., and Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh. are nearly, if not quite, destroyed at Tunbridge Wells ; Osmunda regalis, L. only exists in a few remote spots, and Ceterach officinarum, Willd. is in much the same plight. Lastrcea Thelypteris, Presl, L. Oreopteris, Presl, and L. spinulosa, Presl, still however occur in fair quantity. L. cetnula. Bracken- bridge has two stations assigned to it in district 8. Botrychium Lunar ia, Sw. (moonwort) was lately found near Goudhurst, and may survive in some of its old haunts ; Ophioglossum vulgatum, L. (adder's tongue) is frequent, except in the north-west. Equisetace^. — Equisetum sylvaticum, L. (wood horsetail), though observed in six of our divisions, must be called scarce. There are specimens of E. hyemale, L. from east Kent in herbaria, but we do not know the precise locality. Several other species occur freely. Lycopodiace^. — Lycopodium inundatum, L. (bog clubmoss) still grows at Keston and Hothfield, though probably lost at Chislehurst. L. clavatum, L. (stag's-horn moss) has three stations in district 8 and four in district 9. Marsileace^. — Pilularia globulifera, L, (pillwort) is only recorded from Sutton Valence. THE MOSSES {Musci). The chief feature of the Bryological flora of Kent is the absence of the great majority of subalpine mosses, and of such as would occur in boggy districts or on elevated moors, these geographical features being almost absent from Kent. This is the more singular in that the sand rocks, just over the border of the county, in Sussex, furnish many subalpine species, especially south of Tunbridge Wells. On the other hand the mosses characteristic of the 68