Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/87

BOTANY 4. The Ivel District has for its boundaries those of the West Ouse district already described from near Roxton to Boughton End. At this place it touches the Ouzel district, from which it is separated by a line drawn across the county from Boughton End to Eversholt, Toddington, Chalgrave, and Chalton Cross ; it then borders the Lea district along the Icknield Way until the Herts county boundary is reached, and this limits it as far as to Edworth. Here the Cam district comes in, and the water parting is traced by Dunton, and west of Eyworth, to Tadlow, where the Cambridge county border then limits it on the north as far as to Cold Arbour, at which point an arbitrary line is drawn across county to about a mile west of Tempsford, and thence southwards to Blunham station. The district is also watered by the Flitt and Hiz streams. The greatest elevation is about 530 feet near Streatley, but a large extent of the area is below 200 feet. The Ivel district is perhaps the most interesting portion of the county from a botanist's point of view, since it comprises a great variety of soils, including the bare chalk of the downs, the flat valley of the Flitt with its extensive deposits of peat and a rich uliginal flora, and the southern slopes of the Lower Greensand ridge, which affords a warm porous soil with a varied selection of characteristic plants. The country too is very charming from a scenic point of view, and there are still spots untouched by cultivation, where the lover of nature may revel, and where the student may yet make additions to the county flora. The meadows by the Flitt from Flitwick to Flitton are particularly rich in bog species, notwithstanding some attempts at drainage having been made, and there are detached portions of bog-land which occur as far as to Shefford. Here occur the sundew (Drosera rotundifblia), the marsh violet (Viola palustris), the small valerian (Valeriana dioica), the bog bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), the marsh bedstraw (Galium palustre) and its variety elongatum, the marsh and the heath louseworts (Pedicularis palustris, P. sylvatica), the bog stitchwort (Stcllaria uliginosa), the ivy-leaved crowfoot (Ranunculus hederaceus), a large form of the common spearwort (R. Flammula), the scorpion grass (Myosotis cespitosa), the starworts Callitriche hamulata and C. platycarpa. The cotton grass (Eriophorum angusti/olium) is peculiarly plentiful, and the sedge vegetation includes the very local Carex canescens, besides C. pulicaris, C. rostrata, C. disticha, C. leporina, C. fava, C. echinata, C. acutiformis, C. Goodenowii, and great tussocks of C. paniculata. Scirpus setaceus is local, and Lotus uliginosus and the marsh willow-herb (Epilobium palustre) also are found. On the soil reclaimed from the bog there is a considerable growth of the rare hemp nettle (Galeopsis speciosa), discovered here by Mr. Saunders in 1883 ; the borage (Borago officinalis) as well as a form of the prickly comfrey (Symphytum aspcrrimum) also occur, and the North American snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus) is semi-naturalized. There are remains of alder coppices, showing that at one time the vegetation must have been in great part woodland, and here and there a bush of the grey willow (Salix cinerea) and much more rarely S. aurita occur. The rushes include J uncus supinus, J. acutiflorus, J. lamprocarpus, J. conglomerate and J. effusus. Lunula or Juncoides multiflora and its variety erecta are frequent ; here and there are patches of ling (Calluna Erica), and on the drier parts may be occasionally seen Poa pratensis as the var. subecerulea as well as Festuca ovina and its variety paludosa. Molinia varia, Phragmites communis, Glyceria jluitans, Agrostis vulgaris, Sieglingia decumbens, the pond-weed Potamogeton polygonifolius, Pour., and the form ericetorum, have been observed. The Lower Greensand about Ampthill affords abundance of the cress Teesdalia nudi- caulis, of the scorpion grasses Myosotis col Una and M. versicolor, of the chick weed Ceras- tium semidecandrum, which Abbot mistook for C. pumilum, the buck's-horn (Plantago Coronopus), the hair grass (Aira prescox), the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), the hawkweed Hieracium boreale, the vetch Vicia angustifolia and its variety Bobartii, the sheep's scabious (Jasione montana), the holly (Ilex Aquifolium), the heath hair grass (Deschampsia fexuosa), the meadow saxifrage (Saxifraga granulata), the thale cress (Sisymbrium thalianum), the broom Cytisus scoparius, the clovers Trifolium arvense, T. filiforme and T. striatum, the bird's-foot Ornithopus perpusillus, the sandwort Buda rubra, etc. The chalk downs afford a characteristic flora, and some very local species are found on the Barton Hills. Among these rarities are the pasque flower (Anemone Pulsatilla), the mountain cat's-foot (Antennaria dioica), and the blue milk vetch (Astragalus danicus). Abbot found a cress (Draba muralis), which was figured in English Botany from a Bedford specimen, but the plant appears to be extinct, and it was probably introduced and not indige- 47