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A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Bucks. At Brickhill and Woburn the Greensand forms a dry hilly ground, attaining an altitude of 520 feet, where the surface is a light sandy material, strongly impregnated with iron, on which the pines and larch appear quite at home. The heath or ericetal vegetation is very varied, and several species are limited to this particular area in the county. Space will not allow the whole of the species to be enumerated, but among the most characteristic the following may be mentioned: the climbing fumitory (Capnoides claviculata), the swine's succory (Arnoseris pusilla), the small mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium semidecandrum), the cudweeds Filago apiculata and F. minima, the golden-rod (Solidago Virgaurea), the sheep's scabious (Jasione montana), the sandwort (Buda rubra), the hawkweeds Hieracium umbellatum and H. boreale, the cress (Teesdalia nudicaulis), locally abundant, the vetch (Vicia latbyroides), the bird's-foot (Ornithopus perpusillus), the clovers Trifolium arvense and T. striatum, the sedges Carex pilulifera and C. leporina, the ling (Calluna Erica), the buck's-horn plantain (Plantago Coronopus), the grasses Deschampsia flexuosa, Festuca sciuroides, Aira prtecox, A. caryopbyllea, Poa subccerulea, and Festuca ovina var. paludosa and vulgaris, and a rich bramble flora, which will be alluded to hereafter.

Where shelter is given by the pines or where a somewhat richer soil is found, then we see great tracts covered by the huckleberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus), which used to fruit so freely that the 'berries' were gathered in great quantities by the poor and hawked over considerable parts of the surrounding country; and I look back with pleasant recollection to the toothsome delicacy of huckleberry and apple tart. Where there is even a greater deposit of leaf-mould we may see tracts of that most charming flower the lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) flowering freely. On the hill slopes, where some spring has been thrown out by the clay beneath, we shall notice the hard fern (Lomaria Spicant) growing by the trench sides, in which there will be a plentiful growth of Juncus bulbosus (supinus). J. squarrosus also occurs, and in the marshy spots the sedge Carex echinata is abundant. In one or two such places, but very sparingly, I have seen the Lancashire asphodel (Nartbecium ossifragum) in its only locality in north Bucks, and there are sphagnum beds of such a size as leads one to hope that the fen orchid (Malaxis paludosa) may yet be found in them. In one if not more of the valleys the royal fern formerly grew, but it has, I am afraid, fallen a victim to the rapacity of unscrupulous horticulturists, but the marsh fern (Lastrea or Dryopteris Thelypteris) is still uneradicated, and there are fine examples of its congeners L. dilatata, L. spinulosa and probably L. uliginosa.

In one place may be gathered the graceful Scirpis syhaticus; in others the great horsetail (Equisetum maximum) grows. Where the stiffer clay soil occurs at the base of the hills oak plantations take the place of the pine, and there we see a fresh series of plants such as the butterfly orchid (Habenaria chloroleuca), the pale sedge (Carex pallescens); in one place the throat- wort (Campanula latifolia), the lady's mantle (Alchemilla vul-

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