Handbook of Birmingham / Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886

by British Association for the Advancement of Science

Introduction.

The Birmingham district, or that area of which Birmingham constitutes the natural capital and commercial centre, extends from Stafford on the north to Tewkesbury on the south, and from Wellington on the west to Leicester on the east, forming an area about 60 miles in length by 50 in breadth.

In no single district in Britain is the relation of the physiography of the country seen to be more strikingly dependent upon its geological structure than within the limits of the Birmingham district. Every hill, ridge, plain, and valley of any importance is a mere reflex of the underground geology. The local distribution and physical peculiarities of its rock formations afford a natural and complete explanation of all its special scenic peculiarities.

The dominant geological formation of this Midland area is the great Mesozoic formation of the Triassic or New Red Sandstone, which stretches through Southern Britain in a continuous band from Hartlepool to Exeter, and divides the broken and contorted Paleozoic rocks of the west from the flat-lying Neozoics of the east. This great band of New Red Sandstone attains its widest extension in the north of the Birmingham district, between Eccleshall and Charnwood Forest, where its transverse diameter is about 50 miles. Within the limits of the Birmingham district, however, its diameter rapidly decreases, until in the extreme south, in the neighbourhood of Worcester and the Malverns, its breadth is reduced to about 10 miles.

The red rocks of this Triassic formation not only form by far the most predominant and most conspicuous geological feature of the district at the present time, but not long since, geologically speaking, they must have extended over the entire area in one unbroken expanse. They now constitute a sheet of red sandstones and marls, through which protrude, in numerous bands and patches, the older Paleozoic rocks. Although nowhere very steeply inclined, these red beds of the Triassic have been bent into several long low arches, or broad domes, whose longer axes range approximately north and south. The summits of many of these arches have been denuded, and the underlying older rocks have again been bared to-day. Four of these arches are especially conspicuous, those of the Wrekin, Malvern, Dudley, and Nuneaton. In each of these the underlying Coal Measures are laid bare, forming the four coalfields of Coalbrookdale, Forest of Wyre, South Stafford, and Eastern Warwick, all of which shew round their outer margins a narrow band of the intermediate formation of the Permian. In each of these anticlinals, too, the denudation of the core of the arch has been sufficient to wear away the Carboniferous from its centre, and to expose to view yet older formations—the Old Red Sandstone in the Forest of Wyre, the Silurian in South Staffordshire, the Malverns, and Coalbrookdale, and even the Upper Cambrian and its underlying igneous rocks in the Wrekin, the Lickey, and near Nuneaton. With the exception of the Silurian of Abberley and Dudley, and the recently discovered Cambrian of Nuneaton, however, these pre-Carboniferous rocks are comparatively inconspicuous, rising up merely in narrow bands in the cores of long wedge-shaped hills.

From the economical as well as from the structural point of view, by far the most important of these geological arches is that of South Staffordshire, which is the southward continuation of the Pennine chain, and part of the true backbone of Southern Britain. The central axis of this arch runs, as we have seen, through the Dudley Hills, and dies away in the complex of faults to the south of the Lickeys. On the natural consequences of the rise of this arch, all the physical, scenic, and economic peculiarities of the central parts of the district are essentially dependent. The hills and plains around Birmingham are all more or less related to this grand anticlinal—the hills marking the uplifted edges of the harder rocks, the limestones, sandstones, and pebble beds; and the plains, the position of the gently inclined soft shales and marls. It has brought within workable distance of the surface the coals and ironstones of South Staffordshire, and the valuable limestones of the Dudley Hills, and it has had its final effect in bringing together the overflowing population of the town and district.

The original simplicity of the geological structure of the floor of the Birmingham District is much complicated by fractures, faults, and unconformities. The Wrekin and the Malverns are both affected by profound dislocations. The South Staffordshire Coldfield is bounded both on the eastward and the westward by faults of more than ordinary magnitude, while a long straight fault more than 20 miles in length runs through the south-eastern part of Birmingham itself, and flings down the Keuper marls of the Warwick plain against the older sandstones of the Birmingham plateau.

In the Birmingham District as everywhere in Britain, the Triassic formation rests unconformably upon everything below. At the same time, its members overlap each other more or less irregularly, and shew a rapid diminution in thickness when followed from west to east. Thus it happens that not only do the pre-Triassic rocks make their appearance in their expected positions along the main anticlinal lines, but many of the old ridges of Palæozoic rocks, which rose out of the Triassic waters, have had their enveloping pall of red sandstone removed from their flanks and summits, which have thus been bared once more to the light of day. Such are, in part, the ridges of the Wrekin, the Malverns, the Lickeys, and the Forest of Charnwood.

In the valley of the Severn, to the west of Birmingham, the strata run in narrow bands. The central portion of this valley lying between Coalbrookdale and Bridgnorth, to the west of the main anticlinal of the Birmingham district, owes all its striking beauty and variety to the rapid alternations of hard and soft strata which occur within its limits.

In the great Midland plain to the east of Birmingham, the strata are spread out in broad sheets. The plain is underlain in great part by the comparatively homogeneous flat lying Keuper marls, with their intercalated bands of harder sandstones. Its scenery is consequently less varied than that of the Severn valley, but it is rich in that sweet sylvan beauty which is almost peculiar to the English landscape, and it forms one broad expanse of gently rolling farmland and woodland, whose green crested waves sweep onward to the east and south, mile beyond mile, till they break against the long shore-like scarp of the harder Jurassics.

The Local Rock Formations.

As will be apparent upon a study of the accompanying geological map, the geological formations exposed within thirty miles of Birmingham, include the entire stratigraphical succession between the Cambrian and the middle portion of the Jurassic, with two notable exceptions. The two formations locally wanting are the Ordovician and the Old Red Sandstone. The nearest known Ordovician rocks occur in central Shropshire, to the east of Church Stretton; the nearest Old Red Sandstone beds are met with to the south of the Forest of Wyre. The natural sequence of formations, and the localities where the several formations are most conspicuously displayed, are given in the following table:—

Table of the Geological Formations of the Birmingham District.

MESOZOIC, OR SECONDARY ROCKS.
Liassic.	Middle Lias (Marlstone)—Edge Hill, Fenny Compton.
	Lower Lias Clays—Harbury, Rugby.
Rhœtic.	Marls and White Lias—Harbury, Knowle, Wooten Wawen.
Triassic.	Upper Trias or Keuper:
	(a) New Red Marl—Moseley, King’s Norton, &c., &c.
	(b) Lower Keuper or Waterstones—Birmingham, Warwick.
	Lower Trias or Bunter:
	(a) Upper Mottled Sandstone—Harborne, Edgbaston, Hockley.
	(b) Pebble Beds and Conglomerate—Sutton Park, Smethwick.
	(c) Lower Mottled Sandstone—Clent Hills, Stourbridge.
PALÆOZOIC, OR PRIMARY ROCKS.
Permian, or Dyassic.	(a) Permian Breccia—Clent Hills, Northfield.
	(b) Red Sandstones and Marls—Halesowen, Enville, Rubery.
Carboniferous.	(a) Upper Coal Measures with Spirarks Limestone, &c.—Sandwell, Arley.
	(b) Lower Coal Measures—Oldbury, Bilston, Hawkesbury.
	(c) Millstone Grit—Absent near Birmingham, present near Colebrookdale.
	(d) Carboniferous Limestone—Absent.
Old Red Sandstone or Devonian	Absent near Birmingham, present in Forest of Wyre.
Silurian.	(a) Ludlow Shales and Limestones—Sedgley Hill.
	(b) Wenlock Shales and Limestone—Dudley Hill, Wren’s Nest, Walsall.
	(c) Woolhope Beds—Barr and Rubery.
	(d) Llandovery or Mayhill—Rubery.
Ordovician.	Absent.
Cambrian.	Upper Cambrian:
	(a) Tremadoc Beds and Lingula Flags.—Shineton, Nuneaton, Lower Lickey, and Malverns.
FUNDAMENTAL, CRYSTALLINE AND IGNEOUS ROCKS.
(a) Charnwood Volcanic Rocks—Charnwood Forest, Caldecote Hill, The Wrekin.
(b) Malvern Crystalline Rocks—North Hill, Hereford Beacon, &c.

The Fundamental Crystalline and Volcanic Rocks of the Malverns, the Wrekin, And Charnwood Forest.

The rocks which undoubtedly occupy the lowest place in the geological formations of the Birmingham district are those crystalline and partly schistose masses which form the core of the Malvern Hills; and certain well-marked volcanic rocks which occur at the Wrekin and Nuneaton, and which appear to have their equivalents in the great igneous series of Charnwood Forest. That all these more or less crystalline rocks are of higher antiquity than the Upper Cambrian of Wales is demonstrated by the fact that fossiliferous rocks containing Cambrian fossils of this age overlie them, while the lowest recognisable zones of these overlying fossiliferous rocks (the Hollybush sandstone of the Malverns, the quartzite of the Wrekin, and the Hartshill quartzite of the neighbourhood of Nuneaton) are in part composed of their fragments. Whether, however, they belong in part to the Middle or Lower Cambrian, or wholly appertain to the earlier formations of the Archean, must as yet remain an open question.

(a.) Malvern Hills.—The core of the Malvern Hills is composed of a coarse syenitic, and more or less gneissose rock, pierced by veins of quartzo-felspathic rock of igneous origin (Hereford Beacon, &c). The main mass which is coarsely crystalline, becomes occasionally distinctly gneissose and even schistose, and its mineral bands strike from north-west to south-east, i.e., transverse to the general trend of the Malvern Ridge. The basement beds of the Hollybush sandstones (Cambrian) and the Llandovery rest unconformably upon this rock, which has consequently been claimed by some geologists as distinctly of Archean age, representing in part the Laurentian of Logan.

The best localities for studying the essential characters of the Malvern rocks are the quarries of the North Hill and the Wych, and the eastern slopes of the hills between Malvern Wells and Herefordshire Beacon.

(b.) The Wrekin.—The core of the beautiful hill of the Wrekin is formed by a magnificent series of highly acidic volcanic rocks—rhyolitic lavas and ashes. As first pointed out by Dr. Callaway, they rise out unconformably from below fossiliferous rocks of Upper Cambrian age. (Hollybush Sandstone and Shineton Shales) and are believed by him to be of Archean age. The finest exhibitions of the volcanic ashes of the group are met with in quarries on the flanks of the Wrekin itself, while the rhyolitic lavas occur in scattered localities along the hill. A broad mound of the same igneous series rises out from below the Triassic to the south of Walcot Station, and a most beautiful and instructive section of banded and spherulitic rhyolites is shewn in the quarry at the locality known as the Lee Rock.

The truly volcanic nature of these remarkable rocks was first pointed out by Mr. S. Allport, F.G.S., and their original characteristics, and the changes they have undergone since their formation, have been described by him in a well-known series of memoirs. Their geological position, and their relation to the associated fossiliferous strata, and to the similar rhyolitic rocks of Caer Caradoc and Pontesbury have been fully discussed by Dr. C. Callaway, F.G.S.

(c.) Nuneaton (Caldecote Hill).—A thin group of volcanic breccias and tuffs, with associated quartz-felsites, and diabase, rises out from below the Upper Cambrians of Nuneaton, in the Park of Caldecote Hill. The lowest zone of the overlying Cambrian Hartshill quartzite is in part composed of their fragments. The ashes are shewn in old cuttings to the north-west of Caldecote Lodge, the quartz-porphyries and diabase in an old quarry about a quarter of a mile to the southward, while the breccia composed of the fragments of these old rocks, in the base of the Cambrian quartzite is best shewn on the tramway still farther to the southward, leading down to the Coventry Canal.

(d.) Charnwood Forest.—This district is formed of an island of ancient igneous and stratified rocks rising out from below the Upper Trias. The stratified rocks are almost wholly composed of materials of volcanic origin, and shade off on the one hand into coarse volcanic agglomerates, and on the other into fine green slates like those of the Borrowdale series in the Lake District, to which indeed the whole of the bedded Charnwood rocks bear a striking resemblance.

The stratified volcanic rocks are pierced by numerous igneous intrusions. The most conspicuous are those classed by Professor Bonney, F.R.S., as syenite. These are most conspicuous near Groby, Bradgate, and generally in the south eastern parts of the Charnwood area. A mass of beautiful hornblendic granite rises through the Trias immediately to the east of Charnwood Forest at Mount Sorrel, near Barrow on Soar. A few later dykes of altered andesite occur within the forest itself, and diorite in the outlier of Brazil Wood.

To the south of Charnwood Forest, several remarkable points of syenitic rock protrude through the flat-lying Trias. The most conspicuous of these are the hills of Sapcote, Croft, and Enderby.

There is no direct evidence of the Cambrian or pre-Cambrian age of the Charnwood rocks, but strata identical with the fossiliferous Stockingford shales (Upper Cambrian) of Nuneaton, have been pierced in several borings through the Trias near Leicester, Market Bosworth, etc., and appear to rest at once upon the Charnwood rocks, as do the Nuneaton beds upon the Caldecote volcanic group.

Cambrian Rocks.

No fossiliferous strata unequivocally of Lower Cambrian age occur within the limits of the Birmingham District; but strata of Upper Cambrian age are met with in several localities. They were first recognised by Professor Phillips in the area of the Malvern Hills, and have been subsequently detected within the last few years at the Wrekin, at Nuneaton, and in the Lower Lickey Hills.

Malvern Hills.—The Upper Cambrian beds of the Malverns rest upon the crystalline rocks of the axis of the hills to the south of Herefordshire Beacon, along the slopes of Midsummer Hill and Keys Hill. The lowest zone is the Hollybush Sandstone, a light green micaceous rock, containing tubes of sea worms and Kutorgina cingulata.

The Hollybush Sandstone is succeeded by shivery shales, somewhat sandy below, and becoming darker and more carbonaceous above.

In their lower beds they yield:—Obolella Salteri, Obolella sagittalis, Lingula pygmea, etc. In their middle beds they afford Pellura scarabeoides, Spheropthalmus alatus, Agnostis pisiformis, Agnostus trisectus, etc., well-known fossils of the Upper Lingula Flags (Dolgelly) of North Wales.

Their highest beds contain Dictyonema sociale, a fossil which passes up into the succeeding Tremadoc Slates.

The rest of the local succession of the Cambrian rocks is hidden by the unconformable overlap of Silurian.

The Hollybush Sandstone and the overlying sandy shales contain numerous intercalated volcanic rocks, some of which are of the age of the surrounding strata, while others are intrusive.

Nuneaton District.—In the neighbourhood of the town of Nuneaton in eastern Warwickshire, a strip of Cambrian rocks, about eight miles in length by one in breadth, has been detected within the last few years. The rocks consist of volcanic ashes, quartzites and thin-bedded shales, pierced by dioritic dykes. These strata were formerly mapped as altered Millstone Grit and Carboniferous shale, and their Cambrian age has only been recently demonstrated by the discoveries of Birmingham geologists. The complete succession is as follows:—

(1.) Caldecote Volcanic Group.—Well-bedded tuffs and volcanic ashes (see ante) with masses of Quartz-felsites and diabase.

(2.) Hartshill Quartzite.—Thick-bedded quartzites, with occasional layers of sandy shale.

(3.) Stockingford Shales.—

(a.) Lower Division.—(Obolella Beds) Purple and green shales with Obolella Salteri, Lingulella pygmea, Lingulella lepis, Acrotreta, Protospongia, &c.

(b.) Upper Division.—(Agnosias Beds) Grey and black shales with Agnostus pisiformis. Beyrichia Angelini and Lingulella Nicholsoni, in the lower zones, and Spheropthalmus alatus and Dictyonema in the upper zones.

These Cambrian rocks are overlain unconformably by the Coal measures to the west, and by the Keuper beds to the east; the boundary of the area is, however, locally defined by lines of fault.

The basement beds of the Hartshill Quartzite are locally composed of fragments of the underlying volcanic rocks (Caldecote Beds). The Quartzite itself, which forms the chief road metal of the neighbourhood, is laid bare in a long series of quarries between Nuneaton and Hartshill.

The overlying purple and green shales of the Stockingford Beds range from Marston Jabet, south of Chilvers Coton to Atherstone Outwoods. The best section is seen in Parley Park Lane near Atherstone, and the fossils have been obtained from this section, from Atherstone Oakwoods, Camp Hill, and Marston Jabet.

The best section of the succeeding grey and black Shales occurs in the cutting of the Midland Railway near Stockingford, which gives its name to the formation. Their fossils have been procured from the rocks of this section; from the cutting at Chilvers Coton, the banks of the Coventry Canal, from Oldbury reservoir, Mawbornes and Merevale Park.

The numerous intrusive dykes of volcanic rock form a conspicuous feature in the geology of these Cambrian strata. They are formed of coarse-grained diorites, much quarried for road metal, kerbs, and setts. Good sections occur in the quarries near Tuttle Hill, in the railway cuttings near Stockingford and Chilvers Coton, and in quarries near Oldbury Reservoir.

A small patch of these Nuneaton Cambrians is met with on the north-western margin of the East Warwickshire coalfield, at Dost Hill, to the south of Tamworth. It consists of the usual annelide-bearing Stockingford Shales, pierced by an intrusive mass of diorite.

Lower Lickey Hills.—The core of the Lower Lickey Hills between Barnt Green and Rubery, about eight miles south of Birmingham, is formed of a mass of quartzite identical in all its main features with that of Hartshill, near Nuneaton.

At the village of Rubery, in an exposure on the roadside, it is seen to be unconformably overlain by fossiliferous Llandovery sandstone, the basement beds of which contain fragments of the underlying quartzite in abundance. At the south-western extremity of the Lower Lickey Range the quartzites contain fragments of igneous rocks, and appear to pass down into a series of felspathic grits, pierced by dioritic dykes similar to those of the Nuneaton District. Good sections of the quartzites are laid bare at Rubery Station, at the village of Rubery, and in a large quarry near the roadside, a mile northward from Kendall End. In the last-named locality the quartzites are seen greatly folded and faulted.

Wrekin District.—In the Wrekin area the great volcanic series of the hills is immediately overlain by a quartzite similar to that of the Hartshill and the Lickey, the basement bed similarly containing fragments of the underlying volcanic rocks. The quartzite is succeeded by the Hollybush sandstone, with its characteristic fossil, Kutorgina cingulata.

A broad area, lying between the Hollybush sandstone and the unconformably overlying Silurian rocks of Buildwas, is occupied by a series of Upper Cambrian rocks, denominated by Dr. Callaway the Shineton Shales, and characterised by the forms:—Olenus Salteri, Sphæropthalmus, Asaphellus Homfrayi, &c., Bryograptus Callavei, &c., allying them with the Tremadoc Beds of North Wales.

Silurian Rocks.

The rocks of the Silurian System are fully developed within the limits of the Birmingham District, under their most typical aspect. The well known localities of Dudley and Barr have been famous in the geological world since the publication of Murchison’s great work, the Silurian System; and the abundance and beauty of the fossils of the limestone rocks of the district place it next to the typical area of Central Shropshire as the representative country of the Silurian rocks.

The Silurian strata are all of the well-known Salopian type, shewing several thick-bedded limestones, occurring on distinct horizons in a great thickness of dark blue or grey nodular shales and mudstones. They make their appearance in sharp anticlinal arches in the South Staffordshire coalfield, and along its faulted margins. Four of these exposures occur along the crest of the Lickey-Dudley anticlinal—at Rubery, Dudley Castle Hill, the Wren’s Nest, and Sedgley. The largest continuous exposure is that near the town of Walsall, on the eastern margin of the coalfield.

All the Silurian formations from the Mayhill Sandstone to the Ludlow (Aymestry) Limestone are recognisable, but the terminal Downton sandstone is lost below the unconformably overlying Carboniferous. None of the localities, however, shew the complete consecutive series, which is made out by piecing together the sections occurring in the several areas.

(1.) Lower Lickey Hills.—

(a.) Landovery or Mayhill Rocks.—The usual red and grey Pentamerus sandstone of the Mayhill formation is exposed along the north-west flank of the Lower Lickey Hills. It may be seen resting unconformably upon the Cambrian quartzite in the village of Rubery, and at Leach Heath. Casts of fossils are abundant in some of the sandstones a few feet above the base of the formation, and include the well known forms:—Pentamerus oblongus, Pentamerus lens, Strophomena expansa, Attrypa reticularis, etc.—These may be collected from the rocks at the village of Rubery, and from the fragments of sandstone scattered over the fields between the Asylum and Leach Heath.

(b.) Woolhope or Barr Limestone.—The Llandovery sandstone is followed (in a stream section below the Asylum) by pale blue shales and mudstones containing a bed of hard calcareous rock, affording examples of Illenus Barriensis, Atrypa reticularis, Encrinurus punctatus, Rhynchonella Lewisii; but the section is a poor one, and is covered up almost immediately by the overlying Carboniferous.

(2.) Walsall and Barr.—This is the typical area for the well known Barr Trilobite Illenus Barriensis. The quarries of the Woolhope Limestone which afford it are now disused, but a good section of the fossiliferous shales above is displayed in the railway cutting between Aldridge and Walsall. The overlying Wenlock or Dudley Limestones are mined at the town of Walsall itself, but good fossils are now comparatively rare.

(3.) Dudley and the Wren’s Nest.—By far the most notable and interesting of the Silurian exposures are those of the neighbourhood of Dudley. In the three exposures of Dudley Castle, the Wren’s Nest, and Sedgley Hill, the Silurian limestone rises up in steep dome-like forms. This limestone, which is that of the Wenlock of Siluria, is here composed of two calcareous bands—the higher about 28 feet in thickness, and the lower about 42 feet—separated from each other by an intermediate zone of about 90 feet of gray shales. The limestone has been worked for centuries as a flux for the ironstones of the coalfield. The hills have been mined to a great depth, and all the best limestone rock extracted. The intervening and enveloping shales have been allowed to remain, and the present structure of the hills is that of a central dome surrounded by two enveloping shells, separated from each other by two more or less empty spaces. Where the dip of the rock is high, and these excavated parts are exposed, they form deep moat-like hollows, bounded by walls of shale. Where the dip is low, and the overhanging rocks are supported by the vast pillars left by the workmen, these excavations form magnificent caverns of peculiar weirdness and beauty. In the heart of the hill at greater depths they form damp gloomy chasms of enormous extent, which can only be seen to perfection when lit up by artificial light.

The Dudley limestone bands and the surrounding calcareous shales have long been famous for the abundance and beauty of their included fossils. Many of the type species of Murchison’s Silurian System came from this locality; but since the superficial limestones have been worked out, good specimens are exceedingly rare. An excellent collection of the fossils of these beds is laid out in the Dudley Museum, and another in the Geological Museum of the Mason College. Many good collections are in the possession of private individuals in Dudley and elsewhere.

The best localities for fossils at present are the shaly slopes on the flanks of the Wren’s Nest, where the usual Wenlock Brachiopods and Corals are abundant, but the beautiful Trilobites of the formation are but rarely met with.

The Wenlock limestone occurs both in the Dudley Castle Hill and in the Wren’s Nest. The Aymestry limestone is only met with in a single locality on the flanks of Sedgley Hill, where it yields occasional specimens of its characteristic fossil, the Pentamerus Knightii.

Carboniferous Rocks.

Rocks of Carboniferous age make their appearance at four distinct localities within the limits of the Birmingham District, viz., in the coal fields of Coalbrookdale, the Forest of Wyre, South Staffordshire, and East Warwickshire. The strata exposed on the last three of these coalfields are those of the upper Carboniferous or Coal measures; neither the Carboniferous limestone nor the Millstone grit being met with outside the limits of the coalfield of Coalbrookdale.

In the Forest of Wyre the Coal measures rest upon the Old Red Sandstone, in the South Staffordshire Coalfield upon the various members of the Silurian, and in the East Warwickshire upon the Upper Cambrian rocks. In these three coalfields a two-fold division of the Carboniferous is recognisable:—

(a.) The Lower Coal Measures proper, consisting of grey sandstones and shales with occasional coal seams, some of which are of remarkable thickness.

(b.) Upper Coal Measures, or Halesowen grey and red sandstones, brick clays and marls, with occasional coal-seams, none, however, of commercial value.

In the South Staffordshire and East Warwickshire coalfields, the well known “Spirorbis Limestone” of the Upper Coal Measures occurs in its normal place near the summit of the Carboniferous series.

South Staffordshire Coalfield.—The Carboniferous rocks of South Staffordshire are arranged in a broad dome about 23 miles in length by 6 in breadth. Their basement beds rest unconformably upon the Silurian around the flanks of the Dudley Hills, and in the neighbourhood of Walsall. Their highest beds dip conformably below the Permian rocks at the southern extremity of the coalfield south of Halesowen, and are overlapped unconformably by the Triassic pebble beds at its northern extremity, in the district of Cannock Chase. The eastern and western boundaries of the coalfield are formed by lines of fault, which have flung down against the Coal Measures the various members of the Permian and the Triassic. The total thickness of the Carboniferous beds is about 1,300 feet, and the normal succession in the central and highest part of the coalfield is as follows:—

Upper Coal Measures.—

2a. Halesowen Sandstone Group, 600 to 800 feet.

2b. Red Coal Measure Clays.

Lower Coal Measures, 500 to 600 feet, containing several excellent coal seams, of which the following are the most important:—

(a.) Brooch Coal, 4 feet.

(b.) Thick Coal, 30 feet.

(c.) Heathen Coal, 3 feet.

(d.) New Mine Coal, 2 to 11 feet.

(e.) Fire Clay Coal, 1 to 14 feet.

(f.) Bottom Coal, five feet and above.

These measures include several zones of workable ironstone, of which the most important are:—

(1.) The Pins and Pennyearth ironstones, below the Brooch coal.

(2.) The Whittery and Gubbin ironstones, below the Thick coal.

(3.) The Blue Flats, Silver Threads and Diamond Ironstones, below the Bottom coal.

For its size the South Staffordshire coalfield has proved itself the richest mineral area in Britain. Thick coal seams, rich bands of ironstone, and great thicknesses of Silurian limestone, all occur within a short distance of each other, and all within easy reach of the miner. The natural result has been that the South Staffordshire coalfield and its immediate neighbourhood has been the great coal and iron mart of Central Britain, and the abundance and cheapness of its material it has afforded, have rendered Birmingham and the “Black Country” the hardware workshop of the world.

Almost all the available coal seams and ironstone beds within easy reach have been long since practically worked out, but there is still much excellent coal and iron to be obtained at greater depths, especially in the northern part of the coalfield. Of late years the Triassic rocks which surround the coalfield have been pierced in order to reach the Coal measures beneath. An entirely new coalfield has been developed in this manner in the district of Cannock Chase; and two most remarkable collieries, those of Sandwell Park, and Hamstead, have been opened in the neighbourhood of Birmingham itself.

The area immediately underlain by the Coal measures constitutes the district of the “Black Country,” which extends from the western margin of Birmingham to the fringe of Cannock Chase. It includes within its limits, the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Bilston, and others of scarcely less note.

The most remarkable seam of the South Staffordshire coalfield is that known as the Ten yard or Thick coal, a continuous bed of workable coal from 25 to 30 feet in thickness. This underlies all the south central part of the field in the area enclosed by Smethwick, Oldbury, Dudley, Walsall and Bilston. To the southward near Halesowen it thins out and becomes mixed with shaly material. It is in reality composed of 13 or 14 superimposed coal seams, which form an apparently unbroken mass, but are easily distinguished individually by the practised Thick coal miner. As we pass northward from the typical Thick coal area towards Walsall and Cannock Chase, the component seams become separated by intercalated sandstones and shales, so that eventually in the district of Essington and Pelsall the Thick coal is represented by 14 distinct coals occurring at intervals in a mass of sandy rock, between 500 and 600 feet in total thickness. The Thick coal is known to extend far to the eastward, beyond the present margin of the South Staffordshire coalfield. The first attempt to reach it through the red ground (Permian) was made under the bold and skilful guidance of the late Mr. Henry Johnson, C.E., of Dudley, at the locality of Sandwell Park. The coal was reached in 1873 at a depth of 1,250 feet and found to be of its original thickness, and of excellent quality. The next attempt which was made at Hamstead Hall, about three miles outside the limit of the coalfield, was even bolder and more hazardous, but it was eventually crowned with equal success; the Thick coal being reached at a depth of 1,800 feet. As the demand for coal increases, other collieries will doubtless be started at fresh localities outside the limits of the coalfield, for there can be no question that the Thick coal extends far to the eastward, under and beyond the town of Birmingham itself.

The strata of the South Staffordshire Coalfield afford the usual fossils of the British Coal Measures. The roofs of the coal seams, and the layers of carbonaceous shale, locally furnish well preserved examples of Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Calamites, Annularia, Pecopteris, Neuropteris, etc., often associated with abundant specimens of the peculiar Unio-like shell, Anthracosia: while the ironstone nodules occasionally yield fragmentary Crustaceans and Insects. Marine fossils are principally confined to the lower beds of the series, below the Thick coal. Owing to the absence of true limestone beds in the coalfield, the characteristic corals, &c., of the Carboniferous are absent, but the following marine forms are not uncommon in the lower ironstones:—

Lingula elliptica, Discina nitida, Producta scrabicula, Conularia quadrisulcata, Aviculopecten scalaris, Gyracanthus farmosus, Megalichthys Hibberti, Pœcilodus angustus.

These have been met with at several localities near Walsall, Oldbury, Old Hill, Kingswinford, and Oldswinford, etc.

The rocks of the South Staffordshire coalfield are pierced locally by sheets of igneous rock. The most important of these is a mass of dolerite about two miles and a half in length, which caps the long ridge of Rowley Regis. It is traversed by several mining shafts, which pass through the dolerite into the workable coals below. Other igneous masses occur near Dudley, and at Pouk Hill, near Walsall.

The East Warwickshire Coalfield.—The rocks of this coalfield form a narrow strip about 15 miles in length, ranging from Tamworth on the north to Bedworth on the South. The coalbearing strata rest unconformably upon the Cambrian below, and pass up conformably into the Permian above. The sequence of the beds is practically identical with that of South Staffordshire—the richer coal measures being all confined to the lower part of the Carboniferous series, and passing up through a group of coloured clays into a final group of barren sandstones. In the north of the coalfield five workable seams of coal occur, separated by many feet of barren measures. As they pass to the southward the intermediate strata thin out, and the coal-beds practically come together at Hawkesbury to form one Main coal seam, as do the corresponding members of the Thick coal of South Staffordshire. It is probable that the two coalfields were formed in the same general area of deposition, and except for the possibility of its destruction by erosion prior to the deposition of the Triassic, it might be suggested with safety that the Thick coal of South Staffordshire extends in a continuous sheet under the red rocks of Northern Warwickshire from Smethwick to Hawkesbury.

Forest of Wyre.—Unlike the strata of the other coalfields, the Carboniferous rocks of the coalfield of the Forest of Wyre are comparatively barren of good coal seams. The best, which is locally known as the Main coal, is about seven-and a-half feet in thickness, and occurs at an average depth of 300 feet.

Coalbrookdale.—This coalfield, which lies to the east of the Wrekin, covers an area of about 28 square miles. It originally contained about 28 coal seams, but the majority of these are now practically worked out. The succession includes the Carboniferous limestone, the Millstone grit, and the Lower coal-measures in conformable sequence. The Upper coal-measures rest in a hollow eroded out of the Lower coal-measures beneath, forming what is locally known as the “Symon Fault.”

Permian or Dyassic.

The Permian rocks of the Birmingham District are totally distinct in their petrological characters from those of the typical area of Yorkshire and Durham. No true limestones are present, and the formation is wholly made up of red sandstones, marls and beds of angular breccia.

The lowest zones of the Permian repose conformably upon the Upper Coal Measures of the South Staffordshire Coalfield in the slopes of the hills to the south of Halesowen, and its strata are seen in corresponding relation to the Carboniferous on the east of the Coalfields of the Forest of Wyre and Coalbrookdale, and to the west of the Coalfield of Eastern Warwickshire.

The Permian is everywhere covered up unconformably, or locally overlapped, by the various members of the Triassic formation; all the subdivisions of the Triassic series being found resting immediately upon it in turns as they are followed from the valley of the Severn to the neighbourhood of Charnwood Forest.

In the neighbourhood of Enville and the Forest of Wyre, three divisions are recognisable in the Permian, viz.:—

(1.) Lower Red Sandstones and Marls, with bands of calcareous conglomerate.

(2.) Coarse Breccia.

(3.) Upper Red Sandstones and Marls.

Round the South Staffordshire Coalfield the Breccia is the highest division exposed, and this only occurs in force to the south of the coalfield.

Between Tamworth and Kenilworth, to the east of Birmingham, the Permian strata floor a wide tract of country, and lie almost horizontal. Red sandstones, marls and beds of breccia occur in association, but the divisions named above are not individually recognisable.

By far the most striking local member of the Permian formation is the so-called Volcanic or Permian Breccia. It is found in scattered patches over an area of about 500 square miles, extending from the Malverns to Enville, Stourbridge, and the Lickey Hills. It is made up of angular fragments of volcanic rocks, tuffs, altered shales, grits, and slabs of fossiliferous sandstone and limestones, all embedded in paste of bright red marl or pebbly sandstone. It is usually both underlain and overlain by red sandstones and marls, but sometimes, as at Stagbury and Woodbury Hills, &c., in the Valley of the Severn, it reposes at once upon pre-Permian rock.

This peculiar Breccia is well displayed in the Clent Hills, between Hagley and Halesowen. It there reposes upon the Lower Permian Sandstones with calcareous grit bands—(which may be seen above the little Church of St. Kenelm)—and forms all the highest points of the Clent Hills, passing unconformably to the southward under the pebble beds of the New Red Sandstone. In this locality the angular fragments composing the Breccia are mainly volcanic:—rhyolites, porphyrites, ashes, and volcanic grits, embedded in a coarse matrix formed of similar materials. Other sections are seen in the Bromsgrove Lickey Hills, and in the neighbourhood of Northfield. In the last-named locality an excellent section is exposed in a lane leading from the Bell Inn to Bangham Pit. In this exposure the breccia, which shows the usual preponderance of volcanic materials, contains in addition fragments of Silurian limestone (crowded with characteristic fossils), and pieces of Landovery grit and shale.

According to Sir Andrew Ramsay,[60] this Permian breccia is probably of glacial origin, its materials having been brought down by ice in Permian times from the neighbourhood of the Longmynd in central Shropshire, where all the formations represented in its derived rock fragments occur at present in natural juxtaposition. According to Professor Jukes,[61] the fragments of the Northfield breccia, at any rate, “may have been derived from adjacent rocks, now concealed under the Permian and New Red Sandstone.”

The Triassic Rocks.

BY W. JEROME HARRISON, F.G.S.

A considerable portion of the Midland Counties of England is composed of red sandstones and marls. The town of Birmingham stands upon, and is surrounded by rocks of this character. They form the Triassic System of geologists, the first of the four grand members of the Mesozoic series.

Strictly speaking, the title Trias is a misnomer as applied to the English development of the rocks of this system. The central member of the typical German succession, the Muschelkalk, is wanting in Britain; and only the upper and lower divisions, the so-called Keuper and Bunter, are represented. The Bunter or lower Trias, consists in the Midland areas of a mass of pebble beds or conglomerate, usually underlain and overlain by variegated sandstones. The Keuper is formed of a great thickness of red marly strata, with a thick sandstone (Waterstones) at the base.

The following table shews the subdivisions of the Trias which have been recognised in England, together with (a) their maximum thickness, and (b) their thickness in the neighbourhood of Birmingham.

Classification of the Triassic Strata—

	Thickness in Cheshire. Feet.	Thickness near Birmingham. Feet.
Keuper Red Marls (with the Upper Keuper Sandstone) f. 6.	3,000	700
Lower Keuper Sandstone, f. 5.	450	200
Muschelkalk	(wanting in England).
Upper Mottled Sandstone, f. 3.	500	200
Pebble Beds, or Bunter Conglomerate, f. 2.	600	400
Lower Mottled Sandstone, f. 1.	400	(wanting.)

The Trias enters England on the south coast, between Torbay and Exmouth. At the little watering-place of Budleigh Salterton there is a bed of quartzite pebbles in the Trias 100 feet thick which is worthy of study in connection with the great numbers of similar pebbles that occur in the same strata round Birmingham. In West Somerset and Devon, the Triassic strata are 3,500 feet in thickness. Their subdivisions cannot be correlated with those of the Midlands, for they appear to have been deposited in a separate basin, of which the Mendips, &c., still mark the northern boundary.

Crossing into Gloucestershire, we find the vale of the Severn composed of Triassic marls, and thence northwards the “red rocks” broaden till they form the plains of Cheshire and South Lancashire on the west, and extend eastward to Warwick, Leicester, and Derby. From this great central plain of our island a long strip of Triassic sandstones and marls runs northwards, forming the Vale of Trent and the Vale of York, until finally it reaches the coast between Redcar and Hartlepool. Along the main line of outcrop—from the Malvern Hills to the mouth of the Tees—the Triassic strata incline gently, or dip, to the south-east, at from two to five degrees.

Of the two great divisions of the Trias, the lower (Bunter) is mainly sandy; while the upper (Keuper) is chiefly a stiff marl or clay. One result of this is that while the outcrop of the former is usually barren, forming much heath or waste land, as Sherwood Forest, the Keuper marls produce a rich soil, well fitted for the plough.

Owing to the soft nature of the strata, valleys are usually hollowed out in the Lower and Upper Mottled Sandstones, while the Keuper marls form an undulating plain. On the other hand the harder nature of the Bunter pebble bed, and the Lower Keuper Sandstone, causes these two rocks to form escarpments or lines of hills, parallel to each other; the abrupt face generally looking west or north-west, while the gentle slope is to the east or south-east, agreeing with the average dip.

The Lower Red and Mottled Sandstone.—Round Bridgenorth this division rests unconformably on Permian strata, and is about 650 feet thick. It is a homogeneous sandstone, of reddish-brown, yellow, and bright red colours, entirely devoid of pebbles. As we follow this stratum to the east it decreases in thickness, being only 200 feet near Stourbridge. East of the South Staffordshire field, the Lower Mottled Sandstone is entirely absent, and the Bunter pebble beds repose directly upon the Permian rocks. Geologists desirous of examining the “Lower Mottled” should visit Kinver Edge, west of Stourbridge, where this rock is well seen underlying the Bunter conglomerate. Its upper portion has here been hardened by calcareous matter, and projects beyond the pebble beds above. Caves, or “rock-houses,” have been excavated in the Edge, and in a detached mass of sandstone called the Holy Austen Rock. The Lower Mottled Sandstone is again visible on Whittington Common, between Kinver and Stourbridge. It is everywhere quite unfossiliferous. “False bedding” is especially characteristic of this division, but it is common in all the Midland Triassic sandstones.

The Bunter Conglomerate or Pebble-bed occupies the surface of the Birmingham area, along a line running from south-west to north-east. It extends from Worcester, by Bridgnorth, Stourbridge, Cannock Chase, and Sutton Park to Lichfield. At all these places it is seen as a remarkable mass of rounded pebbles—mostly yellow, brown, or liver-coloured quartzites—and attains a thickness of 300 feet at Cannock Chase. West of Stourbridge the Conglomerate forms the “Ridge,” and caps Kinver Edge, dipping east or south-east at from five to eight degrees. Thence it is traceable northward by Upper Penn and Bushbury to Cannock Chase, where it forms a wide undulating heathy moorland, six miles in breadth from Bednall on the west to Rugeley on the east, and is exposed in many gravel pits and other excavations. The Staffordshire Coalfield lies like a great wedge between the Trias on its western and eastern sides. Crossing over from Stourbridge, we again find the Bunter Conglomerate or Pebble-beds extending between Harborne and Smethwick, and thence it runs northward in a broad band across the western suburbs of Birmingham, by Winson Green, Handsworth, Perry Barr, and Perry, to Sutton Park (where its outcrop is 3½ miles wide), and on to Aldridge, Wreford, Hopwas Wood, and Lichfield Racecourse. All along this line the Pebble-beds rest on Permian marls, and their thickness at Barr Beacon is about 400 feet. Good sections of the pebble-beds are rare on the south-west or west of Birmingham, but in the north-west they are well seen in a quarry south of Great Barr Station, and in one or two sections near the Beacon. At Sutton, exposures along the new railway lines to Lichfield and to Walsall have been numerous and good, and the Quarry in the Park, close to Blackroot Pool, gives a vertical section of thirty feet. Each section shows a mass of well-rounded hard pebbles, which have been so pressed together during the earth-movements that have taken place since their deposition that many are cracked, while all bear white indentations. The Bunter Conglomerate contains no fossils of contemporaneous age, but many species of shells have been obtained from the hard, rounded lumps of rock of which it is composed. These fossils being of necessity of the age of the rock-fragments in which they are included, they furnish a clue to the sources from which the pebble-beds were derived. The following list of these derivative fossils will give some idea of the results which have already been obtained:—

Ordovician (in quartzite pebbles).—(Arenig Beds.) Lingula Lesueurii. (This interesting brachiopod shell has not yet been found in its parent rock in England, though it is not uncommon in the Gres Armoricain of Brittany, a quartzite on the same horizon as the Stiper stones); various lamellibranchs such as Modiolopsis, Palaearca, and Lyrodesma occur.

(Caradoc and Bala Beds.)—Seven or eight species of brachiopods, of which the commonest is Orthis Budleighensis; a crinoid (Glyptocrinus basalis), &c.

(May Hill Sandstone.)—Lumps of coarse sandstone, identical lithologically with the rock which flanks the Lickey Hills, occur commonly; they contain numerous casts of Stricklandinia lirata, &c.

Devonian.—Nine or ten species of brachiopods (especially Spirifera Verneuilii). Remains of trilobites, such as Phacops and Homalonotus are not unfrequent.

Mountain Limestone.—Mr. Molyneux enumerates twenty-two species of mountain limestone fossils—brachiopods, corals, crinoids, &c.—which he obtained from the Bunter pebble-beds of Trentham. Near Birmingham, fragments of partly decomposed chert, in which the stems of crinoids are beautifully shown, are common in the same strata.

The Upper Red and Mottled Sandstone.—Stourbridge stands on the bright red sands of this division, which extend northward through Kingswinford to Trysall and Tettenhall. South of Birmingham we find the same strata at Harborne Heath and Mill—there is a good exposure underneath the drift in Flavel’s brick pit at “California”—from which point we can trace the “Upper Mottled” across the western part of Birmingham, by Rotton Park Reservoir and the Botanical Gardens; the beautiful soft red sandstone forming a strip about a mile in width between Spring Hill, Hockley Brook, Aston Villa, and Birchfields on the west, to the foot of Snow Hill, and Aston Park on the east. In the cemetery adjoining the Great Western Station at Hockley, there is a grand section, forty feet in height, where the incoherent sand is largely worked for moulding and foundry purposes. It is also exposed in and round Aston Park.

The Lower Keuper Sandstone.—The lower member of the Keuper is the most consolidated part of the Triassic formation, being best known as a tolerably hard sandstone, white or pink in colour, which often yields good building stone.

The “basement beds” of the Keuper are certain coarse sandstones and chocolate coloured marls seen in a pit at “California,” near Harborne. Above these come massively-bedded sandstones, of which there is a good exposure in the now disused quarry at Weoley Castle.

Commencing at Edgbaston, we can trace the Lower Keuper Sandstone by the Five Ways, and across the central highest part of Birmingham to Nechells, Gravelly Hill, and Erdington. Its lower boundary line, where it reposes on the Bunter, may be indicated by a line drawn from the junction of Monument Road with Hagley Road to the bottom of Snow Hill, and thence to Aston Station. From this point it extends eastward, for from one mile (Edgbaston) to half-a-mile (Aston). The ridge on which stands the Town Hall, St. Philip’s Church, &c., (475 feet above sea-level) is formed by the Lower Keuper Sandstone, and deep excavations for foundations in the centre of the town, frequently disclose the thin-bedded, dull-coloured, pinkish sandstones (known to workmen as “skerry”) which constitute the upper portion of this rock. Its thickness under Birmingham may be estimated at 200 feet. The average dip is from three to five degrees south-east. Similar beds are exposed in the cutting at Bromsgrove Railway Station, and it was from a quarry here (now closed) that the remarkable fossil fish was obtained, which was described by Sir Philip Egerton as Dipteronotus cyphus. From quarries at Coton End, Guy’s Cliff, Cubbington and Blakedown Hill, near Warwick, bones and teeth of four species of the Labyrinthodon have been obtained, and foot-prints of the same creature have been found in the Lower Keuper Sandstone in many localities.

The Keuper Red Marl is the uppermost member of the Trias. Near Birmingham it is abruptly separated from the Lower Keuper Sandstone by a line of fault, which can be traced from Selly Oak northwards to the junction of the Rea with the Tame. East of this line of fault, the red marls extend for ten or twelve miles forming an undulating fertile plain, on which stand Moseley, Smallheath, and Castle Bromwich, Coleshill and Whitacre. The thickness of the Keuper Marls is considerable. A boring in Smallheath Park was made to a depth of 440 feet entirely in such strata; but quite lately another boring at King’s Heath has been continued to a depth of 700 feet. Gypsum is plentiful in the red marls, occurring in white fibrous layers, but not of sufficient thickness to be of any value in this district. At Droitwich (eighteen miles south-west of Birmingham) the Keuper Marls contain a thick bed of rock salt, which yields an inexhaustible supply of brine.

The Upper Keuper Sandstone is a thin band of sandstone, not exceeding thirty feet in thickness, which occurs irregularly in the upper part of the Keuper Marls. It is well exposed at the entrance to the canal tunnel at Shrewley Common, and in a small quarry at Rowington (thirteen miles south-east of Birmingham), and also crops out on the hill sides at many points in South Warwickshire. From this thin stratum, the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S., has obtained a fossil fish (Palæoniscus superstes), and the crustacean (Estheria minuta). Specimens of these may be seen in the Warwick Museum, which contains the finest collection of Triassic fossils possessed by any provincial museum.

How the Triassic Rocks were formed.—According to the writer’s views, the area now occupied by central England, alternated in condition during the Carboniferous epoch, between a low plain and a shallow sea. In the Permian period, land conditions prevailed, except in the North and North Midland Counties, where a brackish sea somewhat like the Baltic, it may be—occupied a shallow depression. In Triassic times this central sea appears to have been completely cut off from the open ocean, and to have formed a large inland lake, comparable to the Caspian or the Dead Sea of our own day. The southern boundary of this inland sea was formed by a ridge of old rocks which extended from Charnwood by Hartshill and the Lickey to the Wrekin and Malvern Hills. In the basin north of this axial ridge, all the subdivisions of the Bunter and the Keuper were in turn deposited; and the cliffs and reefs of the Palæozoic rocks of which this coastline was composed, yielded large contributions to the pebble-beds, sands and marls, which constitute the Trias. According to a theory originally advanced by Professor Hull, and ably supported by Professor Bonney, the pebbles of the Bunter were mainly derived from the Paleozoic Rocks of the N.W. and N.E., some being possibly furnished by the ancient strata of N.W. Scotland.

The waters of the Triassic sea were so overcharged with salts of iron, that every grain of sand was encrusted, before its deposition, with a pellicle of peroxide of iron: of chloride of sodium (common salt) and sulphate of sodium (gypsum), there was also an excess, so that much was deposited on the sea-floor, producing beds of rock-salt and of gypsum, of considerable thickness. The presence of these mineral substances in the water was prejudicial to life, so that—as in the Dead Sea, and in Lake Utah to-day—few living creatures could inhabit the Triassic sea, and fossils are consequently of extreme rarity in strata of this age.

The Trias as a source of Water Supply.—The Triassic strata are so porous, that they absorb a large proportion of the rain which falls upon them, and they consequently form an underground reservoir which, when tapped by wells or boreholes, is capable of yielding an almost inexhaustible supply of good, though somewhat hard water. In this way Birmingham receives three-fourths of its water from three deep wells—two on the north-east of the town, at Aston and at Perry respectively, and one on the south-west, near Selly Oak. These wells extend to depths of 400 feet, passing through the Upper Mottled Sandstone, and piercing the pebble beds, and the average supply of water from each is three million gallons per day. The hardness varies from nine to fifteen degrees. There are many other deep wells in and round the West of Birmingham, and at Stourbridge, Wolverhampton, etc., which derive their water from the same source.

Liassic and Rhætic.

BY REV. P. B. BRODIE, M.A., F.G.S.

The Lias occupies a large area in the south and east of the Birmingham District, and consists for the most part of the middle and lower divisions. The highest position of the Lias is seen on the south and south-eastern division of Warwickshire, the middle Lias forms the hills projecting in spurs to the north-west, and the lower division extending in the same direction, at a lower level, up to the southern edge of the Trias.

Upper Lias.—The Upper Lias is chiefly represented by a thin bed of clay, with some characteristic fossils. It occurs on the hills of Fenny Compton and elsewhere, and there is evidence to show that it formerly capped the range of the Edge Hills adjacent, occupying its natural position above the marlstone, or Middle Lias, of which they are mainly composed. From Fenny Compton to Harbury, a good descending section may be obtained from the marlstone (rock bed), through the underlying clays and marly beds, through the “Lima Beds” and White Lias, to the New Red Marls at Harbury.

Marlstone or Middle Lias.—The Marlstone (rock bed) is largely quarried on the Avon and Burton Dassett Hills. It forms a good building stone, more or less indurated, of a green or yellow brown colour, sometimes ferruginous. It forms a conspicuous range of hills of moderate height of which Edge Hill is the highest, from which it strikes southward towards Oxfordshire. The plain below is occupied by the underlying division of the Lower Lias. In this county the marlstone contains very few fossils, and those chiefly brachiopodous shells belonging to the genus Terebratula. In most cases elsewhere the Marlstone proper, or highest zone, is very fossiliferous, and abounds in marine shells, which are usually well preserved. The sandy beds immediately below are rarely exposed, but crop out in a lane near Bitham House, where as usual they contain many fossils. The inferior clays and marls are not visible except in some brick pits near Fenny Compton and along the line of railway. These are very full of fossils in the zone of Ammonites Jamiesoni and Ibex, here nearly one hundred feet thick, and especially at one horizon in a coarse, hard, stony band which contains numerous corals towards the upper part of the cutting, near the station.

Lower Lias.—For the most part this formation spreads over the portion of the country on the north-east, east, south-east, south and south-west of Warwick. A remarkably fine section is exposed in the railway cutting near Harbury Station. This portion of the series is also largely quarried at Rugby, and in other places south and south-east of Stratford. The strata consist of beds of blue clay or shale interstratified with beds of blue rubbly and argillaceous limestone, much quarried for hydraulic lime. One good section of the lime-yielding beds occurs at Messrs. Greaves and Lakin’s Quarries at Stockton and Harbury. The lowest zones of the Lias are largely quarried at Wilmcote, and may be seen at the remarkable outlier of Brown’s Wood, near Henley-in-Arden, and at another (Copt Heath), near Knowle. These two last are of special interest, because they shew the lowest beds of the Lias (in connection with and passing into the Rhætics,) resting immediately upon the New Red Marls. The thickness of the Lower Lias in the county is above 600 feet; but only the inferior zones of Ammonites angulatus and A. planorbis are laid open to any great extent. The best sections of the Lima beds (A. angulatus zone) occur in the railway cutting at Harbury, Stockton lime quarries, and the extensive quarries at Newbold near Rugby. Fossils are not very numerous, but the following occur:—Gryphea incurva, Rhynchonella variabilis, Ammonites angulatus, Pecten, various species, Lima gigantea, and bones and teeth of Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus. Fish are comparatively rare, two or three only were found at Harbury and a very few near Rugby.

The higher ground round Wilmcote and Binton is also capped by these Lima beds; but the district is more or less affected by small faults, so that certain beds in one contiguous quarry are absent in another. The lower limestones (insect beds) are largely worked in this locality, and are of much economical value. With the exception of remains of insects and fragments of plants, the fossils are entirely marine, Ammonites planorbis and A. Johnstoni, being abundant and characteristic. Crustacea belonging to the genera Astacus and Eryon, the latter of great size are not unfrequently met with. Small fishes, Pholidophorus Stricklandi, and the larger Dapedium and Tetragonolepis more rarely occur. A fine example of the latter is preserved in the Warwick Museum. The large Enaliosaurians are well represented by some fine specimens of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus; the P. megacephalus in the Museum at Warwick being nearly entire, measuring 14 feet 4 inches in length. Large masses of driftwood and a few fronds of ferns are sometimes met with. But perhaps the most interesting and remarkable fossils are the insects. Twenty-four families and genera were determined more than twenty years ago, since which time many important additions have been made. The Coleoptera and Neuroptera are most numerous. Small beetles are not unfrequently found entire. Among these may be noted the families Buprestidæ, Elateridæ, Carabidæ, and others.

There are also remains of Orthoptera, Homoptera, Libellulidæ, and some Diptera. Many of the Neuroptera were evidently of gigantic proportions, but most of the insects were of small size, and like the associated plants, are indicative of a temperate climate. They are most nearly allied to forms which now inhabit North America. There are few extinct or unknown genera among them.

Rhætic Series.—The highest beds referred to this series consist of certain hard, fine grained limestones, which, from their ordinary white colour, have been termed White Lias. They occupy a considerable area south and south-east of Warwick. They constitute a purely local deposit, and are confined for the most part to this county and Somersetshire. They are often close-grained and hard limestones, and make a useful building material and a good lime. Their colour is mostly white, with a yellow tinge, and occasionally pink and grey. Some geologists consider these beds to belong to the “Rhætic Series,” others to the passage beds between the Lias and the latter, while others still class them with the Lias.

The undisputed Rhætic rocks lie between the White Lias and the Triassic Marls. In Warwickshire they are rarely exposed, and then much reduced in bulk, compared with their development in Gloucester and Glamorgan. They may be seen to a limited extent below the White Lias in the railway cutting at Harbury, where a band of yellowish sandstone contains the small bivalved crustacean, Estheria minuta; and also at the small outlier of Brown’s Wood, and at Stooper’s Wood, near Wooton Wawen, where this sandstone occurs with inferior shelly limestones and sandy bands, containing the usual Rhætic fossils, e.g., Cardium Rhæticum, Avicula contorta, Pleurophorus elongatus, Pecten valoniensis, and Schizodus cloacinus. The nearest exposure of the Rhætic to Birmingham occurs round the fringe of an outlier of Lower Lias resting on the Upper Red Marl near the village of Knowle. This outlier is about a mile and a half long, by half a mile broad. Its highest beds at Copt Heath contain Ammonites planorbis. The beds referred to the Rhætic include a stratum of yellow micaceous sandstone full of Schizodus cloacinus, which, though usually in the form of casts, is sharp and well defined. The bone bed, though no where exposed, is probably present in its normal position. A fine section, with numerous characteristic Rhætic fossils was exposed on the railway cutting at Summer Hill, between Stratford and Alcester. Rhætic black shales were passed through at Snitterfield, in making a tunnel in connection with the new reservoir for Stratford.

Glacial and Post Tertiary Deposits.

BY H. W. CROSSKEY, LL.D., F.G.S.

Post Tertiary Deposits are scattered profusely over the district of which Birmingham is the centre, and present many problems of too complicated a character to be discussed in the pages of this guide. It must suffice to indicate a few of their chief exposures and characteristics. The term “Boulder Clay” is used in this note to denote a clay shown to be connected with the Glacial epoch, by containing a greater or less number of erratic blocks; and in the employment of the term, no theory regarding the method of formation of the deposit will be implied.

The Post Tertiary deposits of the district may be arranged in the following general order:—

I.—Lower boulder clays.

II.—Middle glacial clays, sands, and gravels.

III.—Upper boulder clays.

IV.—Post glacial clay, sands, and gravels.

The most complete section that has been found is at “California,” near Harborne.

Resting upon the Bunter Sandstone, about 480 feet above the sea level, is a Lower boulder clay, containing erratic boulders of slate, felsite, quartzite, intermixed with blocks and stones of local origin. Many of the erratics are angular, and some (especially the slates) are finely striated. The whole deposit is unstratified and compact, and the boulders are roughly pressed together, in every variety of position, without any orderly arrangement. This boulder clay is succeeded by the Middle Sands and Gravels which are irregularly stratified and show false bedding. Fragments of coal occur among the pebbles. The sands and gravels dip rapidly to the S.W., and pass under an Upper boulder clay. The Upper Boulder Clay consists of a compact mass of clay with erratics scattered through it; but the erratics are neither so abundant nor so confusedly pressed together as in the lower bed. Granite has been found, although rarely, associated with the travelled felsites and quartzites, together with a few flints; and local stones and blocks are also mixed up with the clay—the clay itself however largely preponderating and being available for brick making.

The series is capped by a mixture of clay, sand, and gravel in varying proportions, which fills many hollows that have been washed out of the upper clay; and must be regarded as Post Glacial. Taking the general divisions indicated by the California section, attention may be directed to the following illustrative facts and sections. Glacial striæ upon the surface of the rock have been noticed at Weoley Hill Quarry close to California. The removal of a mass of clay, sand, and gravel exposed a distinctly striated surface of hardened Bunter Sandstone. The polished surface dips towards the south west, in which direction the principal striæ run, although there are several cross striæ. The complete section shews (a) striated and polished Bunter (altitude 520 feet above sea level); (b) thin bed of marl; (c) sands and gravels (Middle Glacial); (d) clay (Upper Boulder Clay).

A very large number of well-marked and finely smoothed and polished grooves occur upon the blocks of native rock which are strewn over the irregularly shaped mass of basalt constituting Rowley Hill, Worcestershire. Isolated grooved blocks rest upon the surface of the hill, having been carried by external force into their present position; but there is also, at Rowley Hall Quarry, a kind of platform, capping the solid mass of basalt, which is almost entirely composed of blocks with smoothed and grooved surfaces, stiffly imbedded in clay.

The question has been raised whether, since the basalt readily develops joints, these grooves may not be rudimentary joints, or whether disintegration may not have taken place along certain lines which have gradually become grooves. I entertain no doubt, however, of their glacial origin. No other explanation than that the grooves were the work of moving ice can account, I think, for their excellent polish, their frequent parallelism, their adaptation to the hollows and protuberances of the blocks they cross, and their predominant trend from north-east to south-west. The absence of erratics from the boulder clay in which the grooved basaltic blocks are embedded is evidence of local ice action at Rowley Hill. It is notable also that angular blocks of basalt from Rowley Hill have been found in Birmingham, blocks which must have travelled at least six miles.

It is often difficult to decide the precise age of the boulder clays of the district; and whether any individual bed is referred to the upper or the lower series is more dependent upon the glacial theories that may be adopted than upon any observations that can be made in the field. A Boulder Clay, of a typical kind, has been exposed at a brickyard, at the bottom of Oak Street, Wolverhampton. This clay contains an extraordinary number and variety of erratic blocks, without question from the Lake District and south of Scotland, a few flints, together with pebbles from the Bunter beds. One of the sides of a boulder of felsite, measuring 11 × 3 × 3ft., is flat and smooth, and covered with parallel striæ. The sands and gravels rising in small hillocks near the Cemetery, and slightly covering the clay of the pit, are probably Middle glacial. A boulder clay, formerly exposed at Icknield Street, Birmingham, while presenting the same physical characteristics as the Wolverhampton clay, differed from it widely in the nature of the embedded erratic blocks. Instead of having travelled from the Lake District or Scotland, a large proportion were derived from rocks that occur in situ at the Berwyn and Arenig Hills. The condition of the New Red Sandstone ridge, against which this boulder clay rested, was remarkable. The sandstone rock was broken up, and large fragments of it were lifted out of their position and thrust into the middle of the drift.

The changes of level which occurred during the glacial epoch are shown by the deposits at Frankley Hill. In the clays and sands cut through by the Halesowen Railway only a few erratics (felsites) were found; but on the summit of the section they are abundant and of large size (e.g., 4 × 4 × 2ft.) Professor Bonney, who has examined them, feels certain they must have come from Wales, having seen nothing like them in the Lake District. Their height is nearly 800ft. above the sea level. Were these erratics brought by land ice, the alteration in the physical geography of the country must have been enormous to have enabled a glacier to have moved downwards over this point; were they dropped from icebergs, the land must have been depressed to the extent of at least 900ft., to form a sea in which the bergs could have floated.

Turning to the Middle Glacial Clays, Sands, and Gravels, these may be seen more or less developed in almost every section cut through undulating ground; and they are occasionally twisted and contorted. In the immediate neighbourhood of Birmingham they are not fossiliferous.

At Ketley, near Wellington (Shropshire) however, fossiliferous sands and gravels occur, which I am inclined (provisionally) to assign to this period. They rest upon a bed containing erratic blocks of granite, and other rocks of northern origin; and I collected from them 13 species of mollusca. Only one species was peculiarly northern (astarte borealis) but all in the group have an arctic range of habitat. The elevation of these beds is about 357 feet above the sea.

At Fox Hall Field, New Lodge, Lilleshall (Shropshire) in a pit worked for sand, 463 feet above the sea, Mr. Woodward discovered 21 species of mollusca, three—viz., Dentalium abyssorum, Natica affinis, and Astarte borealis—being characteristically arctic and extinct in British waters.

The Upper Boulder Clay is worked for bricks in many localities. It is distinguished from the Lower Boulder Clay, by having erractic blocks sparsely scattered through it. It is often very compact and tenacious. No fossils have as yet been found in it; unless indeed a clay derived from a drain in a street at Wolverhampton, in which I detected fragments of Tellina balthica, the spine of an Echinus, Polymorphina lactea, and Polystomella crispa, may be assigned to this division of the epoch.

The extraordinary dispersion of erratic blocks over the surface of the ground remains to be noticed, and constitutes one of the most remarkable phenomena in local glacial geology. I distinguish the boulders resting on the surface of the ground from those embedded in the clay beds, although it is of course possible and probable that the clay has been largely denuded, and the boulders have thus been left exposed. Many of these erratic blocks may therefore belong to the Lower Boulder Clay; while others may have fallen from the icebergs which during the proved subsidence of the land must have floated over the “Midland” sea, and have been deposited in the Upper boulder clay, while it was in process of accumulation.

How far the dispersion of erratics over the Midlands may be referred to the ice sheet of some geologists, or to the icebergs of the Archipelago period in the history of Great Britain, must, at present, be regarded as an open question.

The Midland erratics have undoubtedly travelled from three distinct regions, viz., (1) from Wales, (2) the western part of the Lake district, and (3) Kirkcudbrightshire. Boulders from the more easterly part of the Lake district, such as the Snap granite boulders, so abundantly spread over Yorkshire, have not been found in this neighbourhood.

The peculiar distribution of the Midland erratics is noteworthy. Commencing at Bushbury Hill (a little to the north of Wolverhampton, on the table land facing towards the N.W.) the Lake rocks and the Scotch rocks—Criffell granites and Eskdale granites—are largely intermingled. Journeying westwards, a stream of boulders from Wales crosses the northern streams. On and around the Clent Hills (1023 feet) south west of Birmingham, Welsh felsites are the only boulders to be found. Birmingham itself being in the rear of the higher part of the table land on which it stands, is in a kind of protected district, so far as the northern stream of boulders is concerned, and the erratics in its immediate vicinity are chiefly Welsh felsites; a few fragments however of granite are occasionally found.

Post Glacial Beds.—The most complete section of post glacial beds in this locality was obtained during excavations made at Shustoke, near Birmingham; when a bed of black peat, containing the remains of Elephas antiquus, Cervus elephas, and Bos primigenius, with hazel nuts and fragments of wood, was discovered 7ft. 6in. beneath the surface. The section was as follows:—

Soil	1ft.	0in.
Sandy marl	1ft.	8in.
Yellow clay (stiff)	3ft.	8in.
Blue clay (stiff)	1ft.	2in.
Black peat	1ft.	10in.
“Ballast” gravel and sand	3ft.	0in.
Sandstone and marl.

The fossils found in the peat have been placed in the Geological Museum of the Mason College.

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PETROGRAPHY.
Notes on the Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks of the Birmingham District.

BY S. ALLPORT, F.G.S.

The space available for some account of the crystalline rocks being strictly limited, it would be useless to attempt anything more than a brief general description of the most important and interesting varieties. Fortunately there is abundance of material, for Birmingham, as a central point, affords unusual facilities for the study of this branch of petrology. Although the rocks here described appear to be scattered over a rather wide area, it will be found that every locality mentioned may not only be easily reached from one of the railway stations, but that a good series of specimens may be collected and the return journey made within the same day.

The Malvern Hills.—It was clearly shown by Dr. Holl, in 1865, (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxi.) that the central portion or axis of this chain of hills consists of a great series of true crystalline schists, among which the prevailing types are hornblendic and micaceous gneiss, hornblende-schist, mica-schist, and a quartzo-felspathic rock, all of which are more or less distinctly foliated. There is, however, great variety in the relative proportions of the constituents; in many places either the hornblende or the mica are nearly, or even quite absent; the felspar and quartz then form the mass of the rock. In the quarries on the east side of the North Hill, beautiful examples of hornblende and felspar rock are abundant; they contain more or less quartz, with a little mica, and occasionally pass by insensible gradations from a well-marked gneissic structure into a coarsely crystalline mass in which foliation is no longer apparent. These latter are, however, exceptional cases, and there can, I think, be no doubt that we have here, in the Midlands, a considerable exposure of the oldest type of foliated crystalline schists, or as they are now frequently called Pre-Cambrian or Archæan rocks. The rocks of the North Hill are probably the oldest; they have been much disturbed, and are generally the most coarsely crystalline of the series. The more basic portions have suffered a considerable amount of alteration; the secondary constituents, chlorite and epidote, become abundant, and occasionally the hornblende has been completely replaced by the latter mineral; the rock then becomes an epidote schist of a pale-yellowish colour. In Swinyards Hill there is a micaceous gneiss with garnets, and in Raggedstone Hill there are interesting varieties of contorted mica-schist containing a large proportion of quartz. Dykes of intrusive rocks occur in nearly all the hills, but become far more numerous towards the north; they are very uniform in appearance, and are probably altered dolerites or diorites; very few specimens have been examined, and they belong to the former group. In the North Hill there are some masses of true diorite, but their relation to the hornblendic gneisses with which they are associated has not been clearly established.

Mount Sorrel Granite.—The granite is of two varieties, red and grey, the difference being due to the fact, that in the red masses, the partially decomposed felspar has been coloured by ferric oxide. The rock is a hornblendic granite, the constituents being quartz, felspar, biotite, hornblende and titanite, with magnetite and a little apatite. The felspars are orthoclase and plagioclase; the former is much decomposed, while the plagioclase frequently remains clear, and exhibits well its twin striation. Biotite was originally abundant, but is very frequently replaced by a clear green substance, which is strongly dichroic, the two colours being grass-green, and clear yellow. The hornblende has been greatly decomposed; clear crystals are, however, not uncommon, and exhibit the usual optical characters of the mineral. The products of alteration are chlorite and epidote. The titanite appears in reddish-brown grains, but is not very abundant. In 1879, the writer discovered the junction of the granite with the sedimentary rocks, and proved that the former was intrusive (Geol. Mag. dec. ii., Vol. vi., p. 181). The junction occurs in Brazil Wood, where there is a small quarry, in which granite veins may be seen to penetrate the strata in various directions; a large mass of granite is also within a few yards. Some of the phenomena of contact metamorphism may here be readily studied, the granite having converted the slate into a crystalline micaceous schist, quite similar in character to those produced under like conditions round the granite in Cornwall and elsewhere. Small garnets occur in the altered slates, and also in the granite close to the junction.

The Charnwood Syenites.—The Syenites and other igneous rocks of Charnwood, have been described by Messrs. Hill and Bonney (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. Vol. xxxiv., p. 199.) The original constituents are felspar, hornblende, quartz, apatite, ilmenite, magnetite and titanite. The felspar is of two kinds, orthoclase and plagioclase, the former is very turbid and decomposed, while the plagioclase is clear, and retains its usual optical characters. The curious intercrystallization of quartz and felspar, known as micropegmatite, is common in the masses of syenite near Groby; the best examples, however, have been found by the writer in the Markfield rock, where it appears to form a ground-mass in which the larger crystals of orthoclase and plagioclase are enclosed. A small portion of the hornblende is still characteristic, but the greater portion appears in various stages of decomposition; the alteration products being chlorite and epidote. Titanite is by no means rare, and occurs in well formed twin crystals.

Diorites of Atherstone and Nuneaton.—A careful examination of many specimens collected by the writer from the various masses marked in the map 63 S.W. of the Geological Survey shows clearly that they are diorites, the characteristic constituents being hornblende and a triclinic felspar; these minerals, together with magnetite and apatite are invariably present, and in addition, a little orthoclase is seldom absent. The best specimen examined is from a quarry near Marston Jabet; it is a fine-grained rock, similar to a basalt in external appearance, but contains numerous crystals of hornblende and plagioclase which are generally quite unaltered. The clear brown crystals of hornblende are unusually well developed, and afford excellent opportunities of examining their crystallographic and optical characters. There are also present many grains of magnetite, and a few needles of apatite. The only product of alteration is a little calcite in the spaces between the crystals. Other specimens from the same quarry will perhaps give a better idea of the general character of the rocks of the district, and they possess a special interest, as they afford unusually good examples of successive stages of alteration. In one specimen the constituents are well preserved, the plagioclase is clear and exhibits its characteristic twin striation; the hornblende is, for the most part, unaltered, but is much fissured, and occasionally contains so many cavities that the crystals are little more than skeletons. A ground-mass in which the constituents were set has been highly altered, and now consists of a fine granular substance, partly serpentinous, with here and there a little calcite. A second example is quite similar in texture to the last; the felspar, still recognisable as triclinic, has been partially converted into a grey turbid substance. The hornblende occurs in various stages of alteration; some crystals are but slightly attacked, while others are to a considerable extent replaced by a pale green serpentinous substance. The alteration has followed the cleavage-lines and fractures, while the numerous cavities just mentioned are also filled by the same substance. In a single slice there may be seen almost every degree of change from a slight marginal erosion to a mere skeleton of the original. Of the latter, however, some little is always left; and whether the alteration be little or great, the crystalline forms are perfectly preserved. In a third specimen the alteration has proceeded still further, the whole of the hornblende crystals having been completely converted into pale green pseudomorphs; they were originally large and well developed, and their forms are still perfectly sharp and distinct. The felspar is here quite turbid and opaque, and the interstitial ground-mass is represented by calcite.

Purley Park, near Atherstone.—The rock here contains, in addition to the usual brown hornblende, many crystals and grains of clear yellowish augite, and several pseudomorphs after olivine. The augite crystals exhibit the usual forms, some being twins. The pseudomorphs after olivine are quite similar to others observed in certain highly altered dolerites, they consist of calcite or calcite and viridite; they are numerous, and are generally larger than the crystals of augite or hornblende.

Quarry close to Atherstone.—This rock also contains both augite and hornblende; and lastly, in the railway cutting at Chilvers Coton, several interesting varieties of diorite may be found.

The Rhyolites of the Wrekin near Wellington, Shropshire.—In the large quarry in Lawrence Hill, at the north end of the Wrekin, and at Lea Rock on the Shrewsbury Road, are to be found some of the most beautiful varieties of ancient volcanic glassy rocks hitherto discovered in Britain. The rocks in their present condition do not look like glass, owing to a process of devitrification, which they have evidently undergone. There can, however, be no room for doubt as to their original vitreous condition, for they exhibit, under the microscope, certain peculiar perlitic and spherulitic varieties of structure, associated with characteristic forms of microliths, which are found only in the pitchstone and obsidian varieties of volcanic glass. In the quarry in Lawrence Hill, thick beds of volcanic ashes and agglomerates are to be seen dipping towards the north at a high angle, and an examination of this hill and the Wrekin shows that they both consist of a series of stratified ashes alternating with several flows of rhyolite. One of the ash beds contains numerous spheroidal blocks of thoroughly characteristic varieties of glassy rocks; they have not yet been described, but it may here be stated that, in addition to many typical varieties of known rhyolites, there are also included among them some of the rarer glassy kinds described by Zirkel in his Petrography of the 40th Parallel. Beautiful examples of the spherulitic and perlitic varieties may be found at Lea Rock, and have been described by the writer in the Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. Vol. xxxiii., p. 449. It has been shown by Dr. Callaway, that all these rhyolites are of Pre-Cambrian age; we have here, therefore, the clearest proof that, during very early geological periods volcanic action was of the same kind, and produced the same results, as in more recent times.

South Staffordshire.—The igneous rocks of the South Staffordshire coalfield belong to the basic series, and are, without exception, dolerites or basalts, the latter being merely a fine grained variety of the former. They have been intruded among the coal measures and shales, and are frequently found in an excellent state of preservation. The original mineral constituents are crystals, or crystalline grains of triclinic felspar, augite, olivine, magnetite, ilmenite, and apatite. These minerals are very frequently quite unaltered, with the exception of the olivine, which is often partly converted into serpentine; this is the pale green substance seen along the cracks, and around the sides of the grains; generally, however, the decomposition has been continued until the formation of complete serpentinous pseudomorphs after olivine has been the result. The Hailstone Hill, near Rowley Church, is the best locality for varieties in texture and composition, as also for contemporaneous veins. In the large quarry there is a very coarsely crystalline variety containing large flat plates of ilmenite, and here also may be found some light-coloured veins in which orthoclase is the predominant felspar. The writer has also found in the same quarry vessicular and amygdaloidal varieties of the rock. It need scarcely be mentioned that, minute details of structure and composition can only be studied in thin slices under the microscope. Rocks of similar character to the above occur in the following localities:—Pouk Hill, near Walsall; Titterston Clee Hill (sheet 55, N.W.), Knowl Hill, near Kinlet (sheet 55, N.E.), and Swinnerton Park, eight miles N.E. of Stafford. For fuller descriptions of these rocks, see Allport, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxx., p. 529.

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Mining Statistics of the South Staffordshire Coalfield.

By PROFESSOR W. E. BENTON, A.R.S.M., F.G.S.

Minerals Worked.—The principal minerals worked within the limits of the South Staffordshire Coalfield are coal, ironstone, and fireclay from the Carboniferous formations, and limestone from the underlying Silurian rocks.

The Coal is bituminous, non-caking, and much of it contains a high percentage of water and oxygen. Some of the seams produce excellent house-coal, others manufacturing and steam coal.

The Ironstone is an argillaceous carbonate of iron, occurring as nodules in the roofs of the coal seams, or as thin beds within them.

The Fireclay, particularly in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge, has a high refractory power.

Quantity of Minerals Raised.—The annual produce of minerals during the last twenty years has remained without any considerable alteration. The Government Mineral Statistics for 1885 are not yet published, but in 1884 the quantities of minerals raised in South Staffordshire Coalfield were:—Coal, 9,688,047 tons; ironstone, 116,951 tons; fireclay, 205,320 tons; limestone (no statistics given). The respective values of these minerals at the mines were estimated at:—coal, £2,785,313; ironstone, £62,974; fireclay, £42,781.

The total number of persons employed at the mines during the same period was 23,782.

Destination of the Minerals.—The greater part of the coal is consumed in the district for house purposes, for steam raising, for the manufacture of bricks, pottery, glass, salt, &c. The remainder is carried out of the coalfield into the south and south-western districts of England by the London and North Western, Great Western, and Midland Railway Companies, for house and steam purposes. The gas coals and coke used in the Birmingham district are not the product of the South Staffordshire Coalmeasures, but are brought principally from North Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire.

The whole of the ironstone raised is smelted within the district, in addition to large quantities of iron ore (hydrated oxide) brought from the Northampton and North Staffordshire mines. The manufacture of pig iron has within the last decade decreased to such an extent that less than one-third of the existing furnaces of South Staffordshire are at present in blast.

The quantity of pig produced in the coalfield in 1884, was 356,873 tons; in the reduction of which 810,936 tons of coal (including coal converted into coke) were used, or about 45½ cwts. of coal to one ton of pig iron. The whole of the pig iron is retained in the district. The finished iron trade retains its importance, more than one-third of the existing puddling furnaces and rolling mills in Great Britain occur within the limits of the South Staffordshire Coalfield.

The finished iron is produced from local pig iron, and from pig iron brought from Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and North Staffordshire. The steel production in South Staffordshire is gradually increasing. The processes adopted are those known as the Bessemer, Gilchrist and open hearth.

The South Staffordshire fireclay is worked principally in the neighbourhood of Brettle Lane and Stourbridge, and is employed in the production of firebricks, gas retorts, pottery, etc. Much also is conveyed into other districts in a raw condition for pottery purposes.

The Silurian limestone is worked partly in open work in the neighbourhood of Dudley, and partly by ordinary underground mining operations at the Wren’s Nest, Sedgley, and at Walsall.

Characteristic Features of the Mining of South Staffordshire.—There are several noteworthy features in the mining of South Staffordshire. A stranger is especially impressed with the large number of separate collieries in working (about 600) in proportion to the quantity of mineral raised. This peculiarity is due essentially to the insignificant depth at which the minerals occur below the surface (indeed, at Foxyard, near Tipton, coal has long been quarried in an outcrop of the 10 yard seam). This “Shallow Mining” has passed its meridian. The future mining of the district is forecast by those remarkable operations on the “red ground,” forming the eastern side of the coalfield. The most recently opened seam in the red ground is at Hampstead, three miles north of Birmingham, where coal mining is carried on below the Permian and Triassic, at a depth of more than 600 yards.

Another feature of the mining is the unique South Staffordshire mode of getting coal in the ten yard seam, called “Square Work.” This method has met with much condemnation from strangers, but after trial of other methods, it still dominates. A further and most strongly marked peculiarity of the South Staffordshire area is the tendency of some of the Black Country coals to spontaneous ignition. Much coal has thus in times past been sacrificed; but a better acquaintance with the causes of this phenomenon has led to measures which have reduced and which must still further reduce this sacrifice of wealth.

Mines’ Drainage.—In the Tipton and Old Hill districts many of the coal mines are water-logged. In 1873 a Parliamentary Commission however was appointed to drain this area, and was empowered to levy rates to defray the drainage expenses. The drainage area under the direction of this Mines’ Drainage Commission is 50 square miles. The principal pumping stations are the Moat, the Stoneheath Station, and the Bradley Station. The Bradley pumping engines (a quarter of a mile from Moxley on the Great Western Railway) are of the compound type having 52-inch and 90-inch steam cylinders. These engines, with a 10 feet stroke, and six strokes per minute, work two 27-inch plunger pumps, and raise from a depth of 126 yards more than 4,000,000 gallons of water per 24 hours. As a result of this gallant effort to recover these water-logged minerals, the number of pumping stations has been gradually reduced in the Tipton district from 77 in 1873 to 10 in 1885, and the quantity of water from 23,000,000 to 10,000,000 of gallons daily. To meet the inevitable expenses, a rate of 9d. per statute ton is levied on all coals, slack, and ironstone; 3d. per statute ton on all fireclay and limestone, and 1d. per statute ton for surface drainage on all minerals, raised in the Tipton district. In the Old Hill district a much lower mines’-drainage rate is collected.

LITERATURE.
Books, Papers and Maps bearing upon the Geology of the Birmingham District.

Fundamental Gneissic and Volcanic Rocks.

• Phillips, Prof., “On the Geology of the Malvern and Abberley Hills.” Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Vol. ii., 1848.
• Holl, Dr. H. B., “On the Geology and Structure of the Malvern Hills.” Quart. Journal Geol. Soc., Vol. xxi., p. 72.
• Callaway, Dr. C., “On a second Pre-Cambrian Group in the Malvern Hills.” Q. J. G. S., 1880, Nov. 1880.
• Prof. T. G. Bonney, LL.D., and Rev. W. Hill, M.A. “On the Pre-Carboniferous Rocks of Charnwood Forest.” Q. J. G. S., 1877, p. 754, &c.
• Allport. S., “Ancient Devitrified Pitchstones and Perlites from Lower Silurian District of Shropshire.” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1877, p. 439.
• Callaway, Dr. Chas., “The Pre-Cambrian Rocks of Shropshire.” Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1879, p. 643; ibid, 1882, p. 120.

Cambrian Formations.

• Prof. Phillips, “Geology of Malvern and Abberley Hills.” See above.
• Holl, Dr. H., “Geology and Structure of the Malvern Hills.” See above.
• Callaway, Dr. C., “On a new Area of Upper Cambrian Rocks in South Shropshire.” Q. J. G. S., 1877. p. 652.
• T. S. Houghton., M.A., F.G.S. “Note on the Age of the Quartzite of the Lickey.” Proceedings Birmingham Philosophical Society, 1881-2, p. 206.
• Prof. C. Lapworth, “On the Discovery of Cambrian Rocks in the neighbourhood of Birmingham;” ibid, p. 234. See also Geological Magazine, 1882, p. 563; ibid, July, 1886.
• W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., “On the Pre-Carboniferous Floor of the Midlands.” Midland Naturalist, 1855, p. 38.

Silurian Rocks.

• Sir R. J. Murchison, “Silurian System,” p. 408, and 480.
• J. Beete Jukes, F.R.S. “The Geology of the South Staffordshire Coalfield.” 2nd Ed., p. 145 et seq.

Carboniferous Rocks.

• Sir R. J. Murchison, “Silurian System,” p. 463.
• J. Beete Jukes, F.R.S. “The Geology of the South Staffordshire Coalfields.” 2nd Edition; see also Jukes, “On the Geological Structure of South Staffordshire Coalfield.” Birmingham and Midland and Hardware District, 1866, p. 1.
• Howell, H., F.G.S., &c. “The Geology of the Warwickshire Coalfield.” Mem. Geol. Survey, 1859.

Permian and Triassic Rocks.

• Hull, Prof., M.A., F.R.S. “Triassic and Permian Rocks of the Midlands.” Memoirs Geol. Survey.
• Sir And. Ramsay, F.R.S., “On the occurrence of Angular boulders in the Permian Breccia of Shropshire and Worcestershire.” Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., 1855, p. 185.
• Rev. P. B. Brodie, “Upper Keuper Sandstone of Warwickshire.” Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xii., p. 374.
• Prof. L. C. Miall, “Labyrinthodonts from the Keuper Sandstone, in the Warwick Museum.” Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxx., p. 417.
• W. J. Harrison, “On the Quartzite Pebbles contained in the Triassic Strata of England, and on their Derivation from an Ancient Land Barrier in Central England.” Proc. Birmingham Phil. Soc., Vol. iii., p. 157.
• Prof. T. G. Bonney, “On the Pebbles in the Bunter Beds.” Geol. Mag. for 1880, p. 404.
• Thos. Davidson, “Brachiopoda of the Budleigh-Salterton Pebble Bed.” Q. J. G. S., Vol. xxvi., p. 70. 1870.

Liassic and Rhætic Rocks.

• Rev. P. B. Brodie, “Lias Outliers at Knowle and Wooton Wawen.” Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxi., p. 159. 1865.
• R. F. Tomes, “Corals of the Lias.” Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxxiv., p. 179. 1878.
• W. J. Harrison, “The Rhætic Section at Dunhampstead, near Droitwich.” Proc. Dudley Geol. Soc., Vol. iii., p. 115.

Glacial and Post Tertiary Formations.

• “The Direction and Limits of Dispersion, etc., of the Erratic Blocks of the West of England and East of Wales,” by D. Mackintosh, F.G.S. Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Vol. xxxv., p. 425.
• “The Correlation of the Drift Deposits of the N.W. of England, with those of the Midland and Eastern Counties,” by D. Mackintosh, ibid, Vol. xxxvi., p. 178.
• “Post Tertiary Beds of the Midland District,” by H. W. Crosskey, LL.D., and C. J. Woodward. Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History Society, 1873, p. 43.
• “On a Section of Glacial Drift, recently exposed in Icknield Street, Birmingham.” By H. W. Crosskey. Proceedings of Philosophical Society of Birmingham. Vol. iii. p. 209.
• “The Grooved Blocks and Boulder Clays of Rowley Hill.” By H. W. Crosskey. Ibid, Vol. iii., p. 459; and Vol. iv., p. 69.
• “Reports of the Committee of the British Association on the Distribution, etc., of Erratic Blocks; drawn up by H. W. Crosskey.” 1873-1885.
• “The Geological Section along the West Suburban Railway from Birmingham to King’s Norton.” By F. W. Martin. Proceedings of Philosophical Society of Birmingham, Vol. iv., p. 257.

Petrography.

• S. Allport, F.G.S., “Diorites of E. Warwickshire Coalfield.” Q. J. G. S.
• S. Allport, F.G.S., “Carboniferous Dolerites.” Q. J. G. S., xxx., p. 529.
• S. Allport, F.G.S., “Vitreous Rocks of the Wrekin,” ibid, xxxiii., 449.
• See also the Papers by Professor Phillips, Dr. Holl, and Dr. C. Callaway, Rev. Professor Bonney and Rev. T. Hill, cited above.
• T. H. Waller, B.Sc., “Observations on the Structure of the Rowley Rag.” Midland Naturalist, 1885, p. 261.

Maps of Birmingham District.

Published by H.M. Geological Survey.

• 62—S.E. Birmingham.
• 62—N.W. Penkridge.
• 63—N.W. Market Bosworth.
• 53—N.W. Coventry.
• 54—N.W. Droitwich.
• 62—S.W. Dudley.
• 62—N.E. Lichfield.
• 63—S.W. Nuneaton.
• 54—N.E. Henley-in-Arden.

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Note.—The main outlines and colors of the formations &c., in the accompanying Geological Sketch-Map correspond with those of the above mentioned one inch Survey Maps of the District.

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PART IV.
ZOOLOGY.

UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF W. R. HUGHES, F.L.S.

Introduction.

It is believed that this is the first attempt to give a connected account of the Zoology of the neighbourhood of Birmingham, although the Botany of the District has long attracted diligent and enthusiastic workers. The subject, however, has not been neglected, and past and present members of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, and other naturalists, have from time to time made public, in the Midland Naturalist and elsewhere, their observations on the more important classes of the animal kingdom. Some of the classes in the sub-kingdoms, Protozoa, Cœlenterata, Vermes, and Arthropoda (it is to be regretted) have been almost entirely neglected.

The limited amount of space allotted to Zoology in the present volume and the limited amount of time at the disposal of the contributors have prevented the presentation of complete lists in all the divisions selected, although the Editor believes that the various papers now submitted furnish—so far as they go—a very fair, if not an exhaustive account of our local fauna. It would have been desirable to have discussed, more fully than is done by the various contributors, the question of the Geographical distribution of animals in the district, but this question, for the reasons above stated, must be left until another occasion. The division of the Microscopic Fauna has been made somewhat arbitrarily, in order to meet local circumstances. It is hoped that at some future time these papers may be extended, and become the foundation for a complete record of the Zoology of the district.

Without any invidious comparison, the Editor may say that, in the domain of local zoology, by far the most systematic study has been that devoted during many years by Mr. Thomas Bolton, F.R.M.S., to the microscopic fauna of the neighbourhood. The number of new species which this able and industrious naturalist has added to science, probably equals if not exceeds that of the discoveries recorded in any other part of England during the time Mr. Bolton has been an observer. Moreover, his novel and successful method of disseminating these organisms among microscopists, has contributed largely to scientific knowledge, not only in England, but on the Continent, and even in America.

Although not coming within the category of the local fauna, very fine collections of the classes ECHINODERMATA and CRUSTACEA have been made by Mr. G. Sherriff Tye, of Richmond Road, Handsworth, who will be happy to show the same to members of the British Association. His excellent collection of MOLLUSCA, many of which are noticed in this volume, will also be on view.

The Entomological collection made by Mr. W. G. Blatch—the work of a lifetime—many specimens of which are referred to in this volume, will similarly be on view, on application to Mr. Blatch, at Green Lane, Small Heath. It is right to state that this naturalist has added very many new species to the fauna of the district. The Coleoptera occurring in the Midlands will be exhibited by Mr. Blatch in Bingley Hall.

The collection of local fishes taken by members of the Birmingham and Midland Piscatorial Association (established in 1879) of which Mr. James Gregory is Honorary Secretary, contains some very handsome and well-mounted specimens which may ordinarily be seen in the Society’s Room, at the Grand Hotel, on application to Mr. Field, the proprietor. The collection for the present forms part of the Exhibition in Bingley Hall. It should be mentioned that this Association has done good work in stocking the River Trent with about 35,000 Trout fry (Salmo fario) during the last few years.

The Editor offers no apology for mentioning the exceptionally fine Ornithological collection of Mr. R. W. Chase, President of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society. The collection comprises, in sequence, the eggs, and the birds in various stages of growth towards maturity. The specimens are mounted so as to show instructively the surroundings of the various birds as seen in their natural habitats. Mr. Chase will be happy to show his collection to members of the British Association, on application at his residence, Southfield, 7, Edgbaston Road, Edgbaston.

Although Birmingham is nearly the central part of England, and thus farthest removed from the sea, it may not be uninteresting to state that some attention has been given to Marine Zoology, the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society having several times made excursions to parts of the coast for the purpose of dredging specimens. The PENNATULIDA, dredged by the Society, at Oban, in 1881, were described by Professor A. Milnes Marshall, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., and Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., in a Report, with illustrations by the authors, published in the “Midland Naturalist” for 1882, which gained the Darwin Gold Medal, awarded by the Midland Union of Natural History Societies, at the sixth annual meeting, held at Tamworth, in 1883. The specimens may be seen in the annexe of the Exhibition, at Bingley Hall.

The limit of radius of about twenty miles round Birmingham, including parts of the counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, chosen by the botanists who have contributed to the present work, has been generally accepted by the zoologists except in the division of the Mollusca, which is mainly confined to a radius of twelve miles, as fixed by local Conchologists several years ago. Some latitude has however been allowed, to meet exceptional cases, necessitated by the wider range of animals as compared with that of plants.

The thanks of the Editor are due to the various local contributors, and especially to Mr. E. de Hamel, late President of the Tamworth Natural History Society, for his kind co-operation in furnishing the chapter on Mammals and Reptiles. In strict order of classification, the division of Reptiles should have followed that of Birds, but for convenience in the present arrangement it has not been thought desirable to separate this chapter.

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Chapter I.
Mammals and Reptiles.

BY E. DE HAMEL.

I.—MAMMALS.

The district around Birmingham is admirably suited for our native animals, abounding as it does with fertile and well-watered valleys, wild moorlands, and extensive woods; on the other hand, its large population renders the prolonged existence of individual and striking rarities well-nigh impossible.

The value of the matter contained in this chapter has been much enhanced by the personal observations of many of the best Midland naturalists.

Cheiroptera.

Adopting the late Professor Bell’s classification of British quadrupeds and reptiles, the Bats come first under consideration; and out of the fourteen species described by him, no fewer than nine are to be found in this district. The Noctule or Great Bat, Scotophilus noctula, is the largest of our British species, and is characterised by its lofty flight. There is a colony of these Bats in the roof of Cliff Hall, near Kingsbury, and another in a hollow of a lime tree in the Moat House Avenue, Tamworth. The Hairy-armed Bat, S. Leisleri, which has a zig-zag flight, occurs on the Warwickshire Avon. The Common Bat, or Flittermouse, S. pipistrellus, is often seen flying near buildings in broad daylight, and secretes itself in crevices. The Reddish-grey Bat, Vespertilio nattereri, is found in roofs of churches and similar buildings. Daubenton’s Bat, V. Daubentonii, flies close to the surface of water, and has been seen flying both at mid-day and dusk over the River Anker at Tamworth, and is abundant at Stratford-on-Avon; it hides in trees and buildings. The Whiskered Bat, V. mystacinus, frequents the sheltered side of high hedges, and secretes itself in any convenient chink. The Long-eared Bat, Plecotus auritus, possesses ears nearly as long as its head and body combined, and is generally distributed; it collects in clusters under tiled roofs and in church towers. The Barbastelle Bat, Barbastellus Daubentonii, is not uncommon in Warwickshire; it flutters lazily round moving objects, and hides in crevices. The last local species is the Lesser Horse-shoe Bat, Rhinolophus hipposideros, which is gregarious, and haunts roofs of houses; it is easily distinguished by its curious nasal appendage.

Insectivora.

The Hedgehog, Erinaceus Europæus, common everywhere, hibernates in a nest of leaves. The Mole, Talpa Europæa; abundant, pied and light coloured varieties plentiful. The Common Shrew, Sorex vulgaris, often, found dead on pathways. The Water Shrew, S. fodiens, is more rare, but has been found near Tamworth, at Great Barr, and in the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The Lesser Shrew, S. pygmæus, is omitted, as it is now generally considered to be but a variety of S. fodiens.

Carnivora.

The Badger or Brock, Meles taxus, whilst rare, is very equally distributed over the district. On April 14th, 1877, one was obtained in the Foxhole Hill, in Bentley Big wood, near Atherstone; a female and three young ones were taken alive in the spring of 1884, in a wood, near Croxall; there are some more badgers in the same wood this year, 1886. In March, 1885, a single one was captured at Bentley, near Redditch; the keeper at Beaudesert reports that they are still plentiful on Cannock Chase. The Otter, Lutra vulgaris, like the Badger, though rare, still frequently occurs in the Midlands, especially on the rivers Anker, Tame, and Trent, and their tributaries; as well as the Warwickshire Avon. On the Tame, a few years since, a female Otter and brood of young ones was seen several times swimming near an osier bed in the Cliff meadows; another was shot when crossing the river at the back of Broad Island, near Tamworth; two young ones were killed in a hay field, close by Hopwas Wood; and a large Otter was found in a brook at Wigginton, a mile from the river, and destroyed after a desperate encounter; still another was seen trotting along the banks of the Tame, close by the town of Tamworth; while the largest Otter known to have been taken in the river Avon was captured on the first of June, 1886, at its junction with the river Arrow; it weighed 28lbs. The Weasel, Mustela vulgaris, and the Stoat, M. erminea, are both plentiful. The Polecat or Fitchet, M. putorius, is becoming decidedly rare, only three having been recorded in the district during the last few years; the first of these occurred at Alvecote Wood, the second at Hints, in the neighbourhood of Tamworth, and the third at Merivale, near Atherstone. The Pine Marten, Martes abietum, although believed now to be absolutely extinct in the Midlands, used to be found in Needwood Forest, and a specimen taken many years ago near Rugeley is now in the possession of Mr. R. W. Chase. The Fox, Vulpes vulgaris, being strictly preserved, is sufficiently abundant.

Rodentia.

The Squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, is thinly distributed, and may occasionally be seen in most of the large woods, as for instance, those in Sutton, Hagley, and Arbury Parks, where the dreys are built on the forked branches of the trees. The Dormouse, Myoxus avellanarius, is also rare, but is occasionally met with by hedgers, when dressing fences. As it is semi-gregarious, when one is found more may be expected. The nest is built of grass, compact, globular, about five inches in diameter, with the entrance near the base. A nest was taken at Cofton Reservoir, near Barnt Green, in April, 1885. The Harvest Mouse, Mus minutus, is the smallest of our quadrupeds, building a small round and firm nest among the ears of corn, or stems of reeds. It is generally distributed, and has been taken near Stratford-on-Avon, Merivale and Atherstone. The long-tailed Field Mouse, M. sylvaticus, is plentiful, and often turned up by the spade or plough. The Common Mouse, M. musculus, abundant in buildings. The Black Rat, M. rattus, although rare, is still to be found in small colonies, generally in the cellars of large towns, where it is comparatively secure from the attacks of its greatest enemy and destroyer, the Brown Rat. A single recent example has been taken within the last six months at New Parks, near Leicester, and is now in the possession of Mr. F. T. Mott. The rarity of the occurrence justifies this record, although the locality is outside the radius agreed upon. The Brown Rat, M. decumanus is abundant in both buildings and hedgerows. The Water Vole, Arvicola amphibius, better known as the Water Rat, is common on all the streams of the Midlands. The common Field-Vole, A. agrestis, is plentiful in the meadows, where their nests are frequently exposed by the mowers. The Red Field or Bank-Vole, A. glareolus, is much more rare and distinguished from the last species, by its rich chestnut fur; several of these were taken at Belvoir Castle, in July, 1885. The Hare, Lepus timidus, and the Rabbit, L. cuniculus, have been greatly reduced in numbers since the passing of the Hares and Rabbits Bill in 1881.

Ruminantia.

The Red Deer, Cervus elaphus, as recently as 1800, roamed wild over Cannock Chase and Needwood Forest, but is now confined to the areas of the large parks, such as Gopsall and Beaudesert. The Fallow Deer, C. dama, formerly existed in thousands on Cannock Chase, and is now the chief ornament of the parks. The Roe Deer, Capreolus caprea, was also common, but has become extinct. The Wild Cattle, Bos taurus, under the fostering care of the Lords Ferrars, at Chartley, near Stafford, still constitute the greatest curiosity among the Midland mammals. Garner, in his history of Staffordshire, relates that these animals at one time roamed free over Needwood Forest, and how, in the thirteenth century, William de Ferrariis enclosed a thousand acres of high-lying moorland, the turf of which is in the same condition now as then, and within this enclosure the animals are maintained in their pristine purity. At the present time this herd consists of about thirty head, comprising three bulls, the oldest aged nine years, a magnificent beast, with deep chest, black muzzle and ears, black-tipped, wide-spreading horns, and forefeet also flecked with black, the prevailing colour being a rich creamy white. So sensitive are these cattle, as the result of their high breeding, that calves unduly handled are forsaken by their mothers; and older beasts, if subjected to forcible restraint, will often, as the keeper put it to the writer, “just wag their tails and die.” When the calves are with them the cows are dangerous to approach.

Pachydermata.

Before leaving the local mammals, the celebrated red breed of Tamworth Pigs, Sus scrofa, deserves mention as one of the best, most useful, and healthy of the many well-known kinds; but there is no reason to suppose that it, any more than the others, can claim descent from the reputed Wild Pigs of Needwood.

II.—REPTILES.

Sauria.

The Sand Lizard, Lacerta agilis, occurs in Leicestershire and Worcestershire, and is to be met with on Cannock Chase and similar localities. The Viviparous Lizard, Zootoca vivipara, is found in Sutton Park, is smaller and more active than the Sand Lizard, and differs from that species inasmuch as the young are born alive.

Saurophidia.

The Blindworm, Anguis fragilis, is not infrequent, specimens have been obtained at Sutton Park, Merivale, Baddesley Ensor, Beaudesert, the Forest of Wyre and Habberley Valley, near Kidderminster.

Ophidia.

The Ringed Snake, Natrix torquata, is seldom seen in the neighbourhood of Tamworth—although on one occasion the occupants of a boat on the river Anker saw one of these snakes glide down the bank and swim towards them—it is common in Merivale Park, occasionally found in Sutton Park, and near Dudley. The Viper or Adder, Pelias berus, our only poisonous reptile, is locally common, but generally rare; a large number were killed in Sutton Park during the summer of 1884; it is plentiful on Chartley Moss, Cannock Chase, and in the Forest of Wyre. The Viper is shorter and thicker than the Common Snake, and easily distinguished by the V shaped marking on the head.

Anoura.

The Common Frog, Rana temporaria, is very abundant, and may be seen in hundreds in the ditches during March. The Common Toad, Bufo vulgaris, is also generally distributed.

Urodela.

The Common Warty-Newt, Triton cristatus, may be found in ponds throughout the district. The Smooth-Newt, Lissotriton punctatus, is a habitant of every clear horsepond, where it can be seen either basking on the bottom, or rising to the surface for air; this species often leaves the water, and hides under stones.

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Chapter II.
Birds.

BY R. W. CHASE.

The district surrounding Birmingham does not present any striking or special feature to the ornithologist; but owing to its varied character, comprising as it does hill and dale, with considerable stretches of moorland and a plentiful supply of water, in rivers, reservoirs and pools, it forms haunts particularly attractive to birds.

The number of local species recorded is large, consisting of about sixty residents, forty-two migrants, and eighty occasional and rare visitors; making a total of one hundred and eighty-two species.

The large number of marine or littoral species occurring so far inland is an interesting fact to be noted, and from the records of such species as the Curlew Sandpiper, Turnstone, Ring Dotterel, Common and Arctic Terns, much valuable information might be brought to bear upon some of the knotty problems of migration. It is principally during autumn that such species are noticed, and invariably the examples obtained are immature, or birds of the year.

The classification and synonymy used in this brief summary is in accordance with the fourth edition of “Yarrell’s British Birds.”

Accipitres.

FALCONIDÆ.—Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetus, has occurred at Needwood. White-tailed Eagle, Haliætus albicilla, has occurred at Cannock Chase. Osprey, Pandion haliætus, very rare; has occurred at Witton, and near Lichfield. Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus, rare visitor; one shot at Olton, near Solihull, in December 1880; it has also occurred at Packington, Water Orton, and Polesworth, near Tamworth. Hobby, F. subbuteo, frequently taken by the birdcatchers in their nets. It has bred in Warwickshire. Merlin, F. æsalon, not common; more frequently observed in the autumn. Kestrel, F. tinnunculus, common and generally distributed. Sparrow Hawk, Accipiter nisus, common. Kite, Milvus ictinus, has occurred at Polesworth, near Tamworth. Common Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris, an occasional visitor; has occurred at Alcester and Sutton Coldfield. Rough-legged Buzzard, B. lagopus, very rare; twice obtained in the neighbourhood of Coleshill. Honey Buzzard, Pernis apivorus, very rare; has occurred at Stoneleigh. Hen Harrier, Circus cyaneus, a rare visitor; has occurred at Alcester. Marsh Harrier, C. æruginosus, very rare; has been obtained at Elford, near Tamworth.

STRIGIDÆ.—Tawny Owl, Strix aluco, fairly common in wooded districts. Long-eared Owl, Asio otus, fairly abundant and breeds here. Short-eared Owl, A. accipitrinus, an autumn migrant. Barn Owl, Aluco flammeus, abundant.

Passeres.

LANIIDÆ.—Great Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor, frequently occurs during autumn and winter; it has been taken at Wylde Green, November 14th, 1871, and at Rubery Hill, October 31st, 1881. Red-backed Shrike, L. collurio, generally distributed and breeds here.

MUSCICAPIDÆ.—Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola, a common summer visitor. Pied Flycatcher, M. atricapilla, rare.

ORIOLIDÆ.—Golden Oriole, Oriolus galbula, one was obtained at Barton, near Tamworth.—“Zoologist,” 1871, p. 2639.

CINCLIDÆ.—Dipper, Cinclus aquaticus, very rare in the district; one was shot at Handsworth, January 12th, 1882.

TURDIDÆ.—Missel Thrush, Turdus viscivorus, common and breeds here. Song Thrush, T. musicus, common. Redwing, T. iliacus, winter visitor. Fieldfare, T. pilaris, winter visitor. Blackbird, T. merula, abundant everywhere and increasing. Ring Ouzel, T. torquatus, not common, has occurred at Wylde Green and Gravelly Hill.

SYLVIIDÆ.—Hedge sparrow, Accentor modularis, abundant. Redbreast, Erithacus rubecula, common and resident. Nightingale, Daulias luscinia, not very plentiful throughout the district, but to be found fairly numerous in favoured localities, and breeds here. Bluethroat, Ruticilla suecica, very rare; once occurred near Birmingham, (“Yarrell’s British Birds,” Vol. i., p. 322). Redstart, R. phœnicurus, common summer visitor. Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola, and Whinchat, S. rubetra, are to be met with in suitable localities. Wheatear, S. œnanthe, common in spring; generally arrives about the middle of March, Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus streperus, a summer visitor and breeds here. Sedge Warbler, A. schœnobænus, plentiful throughout the district. Grasshopper Warbler, A. nævius, far from common; has occurred at Barnt Green, Alcester, Sutton, Tamworth; breeds here sparingly. Whitethroat, Sylvia rufa, abundant in summer. Lesser Whitethroat, S. curruca, not so abundant as the previous species. Garden Warbler, S. salicaria, common summer migrant. Blackcap, S. atricapilla, locally distributed. Wood Wren, Phylloscopus sibilatrix, common during summer, especially in the neighbourhood of Selly Oak. Willow Wren, P. trochilus, abundant. Chiffchaff, P. collybita, one of the earliest summer migrants. Golden-crested Wren, Regulus cristatus, frequently breeds here.

TROGLODYTIDÆ.—Wren, Troglodytes parvulus, abundant.

CERTHIIDÆ.—Tree Creeper, Certhia familiaris, common; especially in Sutton Park.

SITTIDÆ.—Nuthatch, Sittia cæsia, generally to be met with where old trees abound. Aston, Edgbaston, and Sutton Coldfield are localities where it has been observed.

PARIDÆ.—Titmouse, Parus. This genus is well represented, those species which occur being plentiful.

AMPELIDÆ.—Waxwing, Ampelis garrulus, rare; has occurred at irregular intervals; one shot in the grounds of Aston Hall, by a gamekeeper of James Watt, Esq., about the year 1845, and another at Rednal, Jan. 30, 1882.

MOTACILLIDÆ.—Pied Wagtail, Motacilla lugubris, common. Grey Wagtail, M. sulphurea, has been observed several times in full summer plumage, and probably breeds in the district. Yellow Wagtail, M. raii, regular summer migrant. Tree Pipit, Anthus trivialis, not rare, but local. Meadow Pipit, A. pratensis, common.

ALAUDIDÆ.—Sky Lark, Alauda arvensis, resident and common. Wood Lark, A. arborea, rare.

EMBERIZIDÆ.—Snow bunting, Plectrophanes nivalis, rare; has occurred at Harborne. Reed Bunting, Emberiza schœniclus, generally to be met with in suitable localities. Yellow Bunting, E. citrinella, abundant. Bunting, E. miliaria, frequent.

FRINGILLIDÆ.—Chaffinch, Fringilla cœlebs, common. Brambling, F. montifringilla, occasionally occurs in the winter. Tree sparrow, Passer montanus, very local in distribution. House Sparrow, P. domesticus, abundant everywhere. Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, more plentiful than formerly; now breeds regularly in the district. Greenfinch, C. chloris, common. Goldfinch, Carduelis elegans, scarce. Siskin, C. spinus, occasionally occurs in the winter. Lesser Redpoll, Linota rufescens, common and resident. Linnet, L. cannabina, common and resident. Bullfinch, Pyrrhula europæa, generally distributed throughout the district. Crossbill, Loxia curvirostra, rare; a pair were shot in Aston Park about 1845; it has also occurred at Solihull and Wylde Green.

STURNIDÆ.—Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, abundant and resident.

CORVIDÆ.—Crow, Corvus corone, not rare. Grey crow, C. cornix, mostly noticed during winter; the nest of this species was taken in Sutton Park, May, 1883. Rook, C. frugilegus, abundant and increasing. Jackdaw, C. monedula, common. Magpie, Pica rustica, common in localities not strictly preserved. Jay, Garrulus glandarius, common in large woods.

HIRUNDINIDÆ.—Swallow, Hirundo rustica. Martin, Chelidon urbica, and the Sand Martin, Cotyle riparia, are all common summer visitors.

Picariæ.

CYPSELIDÆ.—Swift, Cypselus apus, summer visitor, rather local.

CAPRIMULGIDÆ.—Night-jar, Caprimulgus europæus, generally distributed; frequenting woods adjoining heaths; especially plentiful in Sutton Park.

CUCULIDÆ.—Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, summer migrant.

UPUPIDÆ.—Hoopoe, Upupa epops, an accidental visitor; has been shot at Witton, Quinton, Oscott, and Baddesley near Tamworth.

ALCEDINIDÆ.—Kingfisher, Alcedo ispida, fairly numerous; to be met with on most of the rivers and brooks.

PICIDÆ.—Green Woodpecker, Gecinus viridis, not common, but breeds. Greater spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopus major, scarce. Lesser spotted Woodpecker, D. minor, often obtained, but by no means common. Wryneck, Jynx torquilla, summer migrant, rather local in distribution.

Columbæ.

COLUMBIDÆ.—Ring Dove, Columba palumbus, common. Stock Dove, C. œnas, not numerous, but often met with. Turtle Dove, Turtur communis, occurs in considerable numbers and breeds here.

Pterocletes.

PTEROCLIDÆ.—Pallas’ Sand Grouse, Syrrhaptes paradoxus, very rare; has occurred in Staffordshire; also at Swinfen near Tamworth. (“Zoologist,” 1873, p. 3,801).

Gallinæ.

TETRAONIDÆ.—Black grouse, Tetrao urogallus, formerly common, now nearly extinct; a brace shot in Sutton Park, October, 1871. Red grouse, Lagopus scoticus, very rare.

PHASIANIDÆ.—Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus, common in preserves. Partridge, Perdix cinerea, common. Red-legged partridge, Caccabis rufa, occasionally met with; has been shot at Ladbrook, and Great Barr. Quail, Coturnix communis, rare; has been obtained near Tamworth.

Fulicariæ.

RALLIDÆ.—Land Rail, Crex pratensis, common summer migrant. Spotted Crake, Porzana maruetta, occurs more frequently in autumn; the nest has been taken in Sutton Park. Water rail, Rallus aquaticus, more rare than formerly. Moor Hen, Gallinula chloropus, common. Common Coot, Fulica atra not rare.

Alectorides.

OTIDIDÆ.—Little Bustard, Otis tetrax, once at Thickthorn, near Tamworth.

Limicolæ.

CHARADRIIDÆ.—Cream-coloured Courser, Cursorius gallicus, has been obtained at Yoxall. Dotterel, Eudromias morinellus, very rare; has occurred at Cannock Chase 1875, and at Perry Barr, 1882. Ringed Plover, Ægialitis hiaticula, rare; occasionally met with in autumn. Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis, rare. Lapwing, Vanellus vulgaris, common and resident. Turnstone, Strepsilas interpres, very rare. Oyster-catcher, Hæmatopus ostralegus, has been obtained at Yoxall.

SCOLOPACIDÆ.—Red-necked Phalarope, Phalaropus hyperboreus, has occurred once at Tamworth. Woodcock, Scolopax rusticula, rare. Great Snipe, Gallinago major, one obtained at Polesworth and another is said to have been seen in Sutton Park(?). Common Snipe, G. cœlestis, winter visitor; breeds here in small numbers. Jack Snipe, G. gallinula, winter visitor; not numerous. Dunlin, Tringa alpina, very rare; has occurred at Small Heath. Curlew Sandpiper, T. subarquata, rare; a small flock seen in the neighbourhood of Barnt Green in September, 1885. Ruff, Machetes pugnax, very rare; once occurred at Sutton Coldfield. Bartram’s Sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, once near Warwick, on October 31st, 1851 (Zool. pp. 3,330, 3,388, 4,254). Common Sandpiper, Totanus hypoleucus, summer visitor; it is probable this species breeds in the district. Wood Sandpiper, T. glareola, very rare, once occurred at the Sewage Farm. Green Sandpiper, T. ochropus, has occurred at Packington, near Tamworth. Redshank, T. calidris, rare; has occurred at the Sewage Farms; also at Sutton Coldfield and near Tamworth. Greenshank, T. canescens, occasional visitor in autumn; has occurred at Castle Bromwich. Curlew, Numenius arquata, rare; has occurred at Great Barr and Polesworth.

Gaviæ.

LARIDÆ.—Black Tern, Hydrochelidon nigra, often occurs in spring and autumn. Sandwich Tern, Sterna cantiaca, occasional visitor; more frequently observed towards autumn. Common Tern, Sterna fluviatilis, often observed during spring and autumn migration; chiefly birds of the year during the latter period. Arctic Tern, S. macrura, the same remarks apply to this species as to S. fluviatilis. Sabine’s Gull, Xema sabinii, once occurred near Coleshill, in October, 1883. Black-headed Gull, Larus ridibundus, not rare; frequently met with during spring on some of the large reservoirs. Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus, rare; has been shot at Bromsgrove and Handsworth. Great Black-backed Gull, L. marinus, once occurred at Shustoke, September 20th, 1874. Large Gulls are often observed passing over, which probably belong to this species. Common Gull, L. canus, rare, has been shot near Alcester. Kittiwake Gull, Rissa tridactyla, rare; occasionally seen during winter. Pomatorhine Skua, Stercorarius pomatorhinus, very rare; considering the unusual number of Skuas that appeared during the autumn of 1879, it is rather surprising that more examples were not noticed in this district, very few being shot. Buffon’s Skua, S. parasiticus; an immature bird was shot on Lichfield Racecourse in October 1874.

Tubinares.

PROCELLARIIDÆ.—Manx Shearwater, Puffinus anglorum; an immature bird was picked up exhausted in the Chandos road in this town, September 5th, 1880. Forked-tailed Petrel, Cymochorea leucorrhoa, very rare. One picked up September 4th, 1883, dead in a yard, in Guildford street in this town, and subsequently recorded in the local papers as Procellaria pelagica. Stormy Petrel, P. pelagica, has occurred too many times to particularize each instance.

Pygopodes.

ALCIDÆ.—Little Auk, Mergulus alle, very rare; several instances are on record of its occurrence in the district, one was obtained in November, 1863. Puffin, Fratercula arctica; one picked up in Broad street in this town, in an exhausted condition, 1884.

COLYMBIDÆ.—Great Northern Diver, Colymbus glacialis, very rare; one was obtained at Tipton, January 8th, 1877.

PODICIPEDIDÆ.—Great crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus, generally distributed throughout the district, and far from rare; breeds regularly at Sutton Coldfield, Little Aston, and Barnt Green. Sclavonian Grebe, P. auritus; one shot at Sutton Coldfield, in December, 1868. Little Grebe, P. fluviatilis, not rare; breeds sparingly in suitable localities; small flocks or families are often observed during the autumn and winter, especially on the river Tame.

Steganopodes.

PELECANIDÆ.—Common Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, a rare occasional visitor. Shag, P. graculus, very rare; has occurred twice in the neighbourhood of King’s Norton, also near Tamworth. The Gannet, Sula bassana, one taken exhausted in a field of potatoes near Tamworth.

Herodiones.

ARDEIDÆ.—Common Heron, Ardea cinerea, generally to be met with. There are several Heronries in the county of Warwick. Little Egret, Ardea garzetta, said to have been obtained at Sutton Coldfield, many years ago. Night heron, Nycticorax griseus, one obtained near Alcester. Common Bittern, Botaurus stellaris, more rare than formerly; a great many examples have been obtained from time to time, especially in the neighbourhood of Sutton Coldfield.

Odontoglossæ.

PHŒNICOPTERIDÆ.—Flamingo, Phœnicopterus roseus; one stated to have been shot in the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton, but probably an escaped bird.

Anseres.

ANATIDÆ.—Brent Goose, Bernicla brenta, scarce; two shot at King’s Norton, October 24th, 1882, during stormy weather; has also been obtained near Tamworth. Flocks of geese are often observed passing overhead, but of course it is impossible to determine to what species they belong. Canada Goose, B. canadensis, has been shot several times in the district, whether escaped specimens or not, it is difficult to say, as this species is often kept in a semi-wild state. Mute Swan, Cygnus olor, is to be found upon many large pools and ornamental waters; breeds here plentifully. Polish Swan, C. immutabilis, once occurred at Earlswood reservoir. Ruddy Sheld-Duck, Tadorna casarca, has been shot at Nechells, also at Yardley Wood; probably escaped birds. Common Sheld-Duck, T. cornuta, rare visitor. A magnificent male was shot at Hawkesbury, near Coventry, in 1881. Mallard, Anas boscas, plentiful on some pools; breeds throughout the district. Gadwall, A. strepera, very rare; one shot near Lichfield in December, 1873. Shoveller, Spatula clypeata, formerly bred in Staffordshire, but very scarce of late years; one shot at Sutton Coldfield, in 1867. Teal, Querquedula crecca, sparingly met with, a few pairs breed in the district; the nest has several times been taken in Sutton Park. Widgeon, Mareca penelope, winter visitor; often seen in large flocks upon the reservoirs and pools during severe weather. Scaup, Fuligula marila, has occurred once at Wichnor near Tamworth. Pochard, F. ferina, rare; has been shot near Tamworth. Tufted Duck, F. cristata, very rare; a male was shot in Aston Park many years ago, by a gamekeeper of James Watt, Esq. Golden Eye, Clangula glaucion, one shot near Tamworth. Goosander, Mergus merganser, an accidental visitor in winter; specimens obtained are generally either immature birds or females. Red-breasted Merganser, M. serrator, very scarce; only young birds have been obtained. Smew, M. albellus, very rare. A female was shot on the canal at Selly Oak, about fifteen years ago. Another example of this species was obtained at Elford, near Tamworth.

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Chapter III.
Fishes and Mollusca.

BY G. SHERRIFF TYE.

I.—FISHES.

The waters within easy reach of Birmingham afford to those interested in the Natural History of Fishes excellent opportunities for study, and are much resorted to by anglers. To those who do not incline to the study of fish or fishing, it will probably be a matter of surprise to know the abundance and excellence of the individuals, and the variety of species occurring within an hour’s walk of the centre of our town. Of the river Tame, a well-known angler states: “In my opinion this is a remarkable little river; in three and a half miles it contains in abundance at least ten species of fish, viz., trout, pike, chub, tench, perch, roach, rudd, dace, gudgeon, minnow, all of which, except the pike, attain to a size equal to any in rivers or pools within a hundred miles of Birmingham.” Large fish are not so common now as formerly, but probably this river will recover, and attain its wonted excellence, when the “Black Country” sewerage works are completed.

The river Cole is a fine trout stream. The river Blythe, Coleshill, is an excellent stream, especially for eels. The river Trent with its tributaries, the Anker, Tame, and Mease, is celebrated for many species of fish, and is a great resort of anglers. Earlswood and the Corporation reservoirs, the pools at Sutton Coldfield, Great Barr Park, King’s Norton, Barnt Green, and many others are all well stocked with fish, and will render fine examples to all who seek them.

The writer’s thanks are cordially rendered to members of the Birmingham Piscatorial Association and to other gentlemen for valuable information, kindly given, respecting the localities and habitats of Fishes. The weights of the largest specimens recorded, have all been verified by the anglers who have taken them.

The classification adopted in this paper is that of “Yarrell’s British Fishes,” second edition, 1841.

The number of local species recorded is thirty-three.

Acanthopterygii.

Perch, Perca fluviatilis, accommodates itself to either river or pool, the former producing the cleanest and handsomest fish. It has been taken of fine size, 4½ lbs., Rotton Park Reservoir; 3½ lbs., Tardebigg; 3 lbs., Rotton Park Reservoir; 2 lbs. to 3 lbs. from Old Soho Pool, now the site of a Railway Wharf.

Ruffe, Acerina vulgaris, not uncommon, river Trent, Alrewas. The writer has taken a number from a pool near Wednesbury.

Miller’s Thumb, Cottus gobio, is to be met with in most of our little rivulets, lurking under stones.

The Rough-tailed three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus trachurus; ubiquitous. The males in the breeding season are resplendent in scarlet and green, and fight for supremacy. It is remarkable with what ease individuals accommodate themselves to sea water. The Smooth-tailed Stickleback, G. leiurus; the Short-spined Stickleback, G. brachycentus; the Four-spined Stickleback, G. spinulosus and the Ten-spined Stickleback, G. pungitius; although not so common as G. trachurus, are all found in ditches communicating with the river Anker, at Tamworth.

Abdominal Malacopterygii.

Carp, Cyprinus carpio. The writer has had one of large size from Plants Brook Reservoir, 7½ lbs., and has seen a larger one in the pool. The largest recorded was from Sandwell Pool, 12 lbs.

Crucian Carp, C. carassius, is not uncommon; the writer has seen numbers of them taken from small cattle pits on a farm in Warwickshire. It is a pretty and hardy species in an aquarium.

Gold Carp, C. auratus, the well known “gold-fish,” used to breed in a pool at West Bromwich, into which warm water from an engine flowed, but it is not found there now.

Barbel, Barbus vulgaris, is found in abundance in the River Trent, but in general size not to be compared with those taken in the Thames. River Trent, 7½ lbs. and 8 lbs.

Gudgeon, Gobio fluviatilis, in streams fairly common, also in canals, but rare in pools. Earlswood Reservoir.

Tench, Tinca vulgaris, not uncommon; of large size at Handsworth, Sutton Coldfield, and near Barnt Green, in pools; plentiful at the latter place, rivers Tame, Anker, &c.; 3 lbs. Edgbaston Pool. It is one of the easiest fishes to keep in confinement. A golden variety of this species is bred in the private pools of gentlemen in this country, it is said to have been introduced from Germany. Fine specimens were to be seen at the recent Fisheries Exhibition in London.

Bream, Abramis brama, in the larger rivers. When this species assembles, after an overnight’s baiting, it may often be taken in great numbers. 5 lbs. River Trent. The writer has known a few hours’ fishing in a Warwickshire stream to yield sufficient fine fishes of this species to fill a hamper as much as a couple of men could carry.

Roach, Leuciscus rutilus, occurs very commonly and of large size; old Soho Pool, 3 lbs. weight, a truly noble fish; Sharpley Reservoir, 2 lbs.

Dace, Leuciscus vulgaris, River Trent, 14 ozs.

Chub, Leuciscus cephalus, River Tame, 5½ lbs. 5 lbs. and many approaching that weight.

Rudd or Red-eye, Leuciscus erythropthalmus. In the River Tame.

Bleak, Leuciscus alburnus. In streams and in Earlswood Reservoir. A friend remarks, “I have taken this species in Earlswood Reservoir, and Gudgeon also, the only instance I have met with where these two river fish have occurred in a pool.” They were probably bred from escaped bait.

Minnow, Leuciscus phoxinus, common in many streams.

Loach, Cobitis barbatula, is found in streamlets in many places. The writer has taken it at Handsworth. It is said to be delicate food.

The Spined-Loach, Botia tænia, is rarer than the preceding. It has been taken in the Rivers Anker and Tame at Tamworth.

Pike, Esox lucius, is found in large pools and rivers. 26 lbs.; 25 lbs. 6 oz., Earlswood Reservoir; 23 lbs., Middleton Pool; 22 lbs. 6 oz., Pebble Mill Pool; 12 and 13 lbs., Sutton Park. The writer could relate many instances of the voracity of the Pike, and incidents of sport,—one must suffice. A Pike was hooked near some floodgates in the Tame, and on taking out the hook he found that it had gone through a Water-Shrew, which the fish had just taken, and still held in its mouth.

Salmon, the king of British fishes, Salmo salar, comes legitimately within our radius of twenty miles. It has been taken from the Eel traps in the River Tame at Tamworth; in the River Trent at Yoxall; and in the River Severn at Bewdley. At the last mentioned place a specimen weighing 40 lbs. has been captured.

Common Trout, S. fario, Bourne Brook, Fazeley, 7 lbs.; River Tame, 5½ lbs., 4 lbs. several, and many below that weight; River Trent, 4 lbs. 2 ozs.; River Cole, Packington.

Lochleven Trout, S. Levenensis. In April, 1884, the Water Department of the Corporation of Birmingham stocked their new reservoir (90 acres) at Shustoke with 3,000 of this fish. The reservoir at Witton was stocked with 2,000 fish at the same time. They were yearlings, about 3 inches long, and are now (August, 1886) from 2 lbs. to 3¼ lbs. in weight. These reservoirs will therefore in a few years be good places for this species of Trout.

Grayling, Thymallus vulgaris, River Trent, Shenstone, 2 lbs.; Alrewas, 17 ozs.; Bourne Brook, Fazeley.

Subbrachial Malacopterygii.

The Burbot, Lota vulgaris, the only British species of the family of the Gadidæ that lives permanently in fresh water, is found in the River Anker at Tamworth, the largest fish recorded being 5 lbs.; 3 lbs. 2 ozs.

Apodal Malacopterygii.

The Sharp-nosed Eel, Anguilla acutirostris, and the Broad-nosed Eel, Anguilla latirostris. In rivers and pools generally. Fine specimens of A. acutirostris are taken in the River Blythe, some weighing 4 lbs. each. The third species of Eel mentioned by Yarrell, the Snig, A. mediorostris, occurs with the two others in the Worcestershire Avon, and doubtless finds its way into the Arrow and other tributary streams. It differs from the two preceding species, being much smaller, individuals rarely exceeding half a pound each; and in its habit of roving and feeding by day. It is of superior flavour to its congeners. The Snig may easily be distinguished by the first five cervical vertebræ, which are smooth and free from spinous processes, always present in the sharp-nosed and broad-nosed Eels.

Chondropterygii.

Lampern or river Lamprey, Petromyzon fluviatilis. In the River Trent, and also the Tame and in streamlets, Sutton Park, &c.

II.—MOLLUSCA.

The district around Birmingham is an excellent field for terrestrial and fluviatile Mollusca. Within a circle of twelve miles radius, which includes a portion of the Counties of Warwick, Stafford, and Worcester, can be found fifty per cent. of the species and varieties enumerated in Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys’ “British Conchology.” No special quality of soil or geological condition is required for the existence of Molluscs; whatever the nature of the ground may be, some species or other will reward the searcher. The number of terrestrial species is usually the greatest where limestone is present; indeed some species do not seem able to maintain their existence away from it, e.g., Helix ericetorum, H. virgata, H. arbustorum, and Cyclostoma elegans. The still beautiful grounds of Dudley Castle were once “happy hunting grounds” for the collectors of Mollusca, but the smoke of a thousand fires has cast a baleful influence over the locality. The dead shells of species, once abundant, are conclusive evidence that the Molluscan fauna do not now enjoy a congenial atmosphere in that neighbourhood. Helix arbustorum, may, notwithstanding, still be found there, its nearest proximity to Birmingham.

Among the noticeable species of the district may be mentioned Testacella Haliotidea, found in the garden of a florist at Redditch; Succinea virescens, (Morelet) = S. putris var. vitrea (Jeffreys), which the writer has taken near Plants Brook Reservoir; Zonites glaber, found near Solihull; Helix Cantiana,[62] Henley-in-Arden; H. virgata, Grafton, near Alcester; Balia perversa, Fenny Compton, Northamptonshire. The three last named species are outside the twelve miles radius.

Conchifera.

The Midlands are rich in fluviatile forms, nearly all the known British species occur. Those worth noting among the Sphæriidæ are—Sphærium corneum, var. Scaldiana, Acock’s Green; S. corneum, var. flavescens, Plants Brook; S. rivicola and S. ovale, Acock’s Green and Rushall Canal. S. lacustre is not uncommon, and is found abundantly in a pond at Handsworth.

The Pisidia are well represented, four out of our five species occurring. It is curious that the large form Pisidium amnicum has not hitherto been taken in the district. The writer took P. roseum[63] from several ponds at Meriden in 1885-6.

The Unionidæ are extremely plentiful, and the two species Unio tumidus and U. pictorum attain to an immense size. In the writer’s cabinet are examples of U. pictorum of the following dimensions—2¹⁄₁₆ in. × 5¹⁄₁₆, 2¹⁄₁₆ in. × 5¼, 2³⁄₁₆ in. × 5¼, some of them weighing nearly 4 ounces avoirdupois; and of U. tumidus, 2⁵⁄₁₆ in. × 4¾, 2⅜ in. × 4⅞, 2¾ in. × 5, the weight of some examples reaching nearly 6 ounces avoirdupois. These are probably the finest shells of their kind ever taken anywhere. Anodonta cygnea is common, and its varieties incrassata, Zellensis, pallida, and rostrata occur. A. anatina, and the varieties radiata and ventricosa are found; handsome shells of the latter occur at Barr Park and in the river Blythe at Coleshill. Dreissena polymorpha is commonly distributed.

Gasteropoda.

In the order Pectinibranchiata, Neritina fluviatilis, the only representative in England of a genus of world-wide distribution, has occurred in the river Tame at Aston, but the writer believes is not now to be found there. One of our two species of Paludinidæ, Paludina vivipara,[64] Bythinia tentaculata, B. Leachii, and Valvata piscinalis make up the list of operculate water snails.

Among the Limnæidæ examples of the following genera occur. In the genus Planorbis we find all the species except Planorbis lineatus, excluding of course P. dilatatus (Gould), which only occurs at Manchester, having been introduced on cotton from America. The epiphragm formed by P. spirorbis, in summer, when the solar heat has dried up its habitat, is a singular item of its economy. It is supposed that this habit enabled P. dilatatus to reach our shores. Physa hypnorum and P. fontinalis are both represented; they are charming inhabitants of an aquarium, their habit of thread spinning,[65] especially in the young state, makes them lively creatures; the lobed mantle of P. fontinalis, nearly enclosing the shell, gives a peculiar character to the animal.

Of the six species of Limnæa[66] which occur, it will not be needful to mention more than one, which is the rarest with us, viz.: Limnæa glabra. Both species of Ancylus are moderately common.

Of terrestrial Mollusca we enumerate the following Limacidæ—Arion ater, A. hortensis, Limax marginatus, L. flavus, L. agrestis, L. arborum, L. maximus, and as before said one of the Testacellidæ viz., T. Haliotidea. Among the Helicidæ of course the common kinds are all present. Of the genus Zonites we have the following species: Zonites cellarius, Z. glaber, Z. alliarius, and its var. viridula, Z. nitidulus, Z. purus, and its var. margaritacea, Z. radiatulus, Z. nitidus, Z. excavatus (one only, at Knowle), Z. crystallinus. Among the smaller species of Helix, attention may be called to the following: H. aculeata, a minute spiny coronet; H. pygmæa, the smallest of known Helices; Helix fusca, taken in two localities only, at Knowle and Selly Oak. Of the four species of Pupa found in Britain, two only occur, Pupa umbilicata and P. marginata. Of the latter species a colony of the white variety has been found inhabiting a wall at Cleeve Prior, Worcestershire. Only two out of our eleven species of Vertigo have occurred, viz.: Vertigo edentula and its variety columella, and V. pygmæa. Two Clausiliæ are found, Clausilia laminata and C. rugosa. It is somewhat singular that of the four species inhabiting this country the last named is ubiquitous, while C. Rolphii and C. biplicata are local. The writer has taken the rare albino form of C. rugosa, at Selly Oak. That exquisite shell, Cochlicopa tridens, var. crystallina, has been taken in three places; the type is largely distributed in our neighbourhood, whereas in others it is rare, while C. lubrica is widespread in England. Achatina acicula, dead shells only, Dudley Castle. Carychium minimum is commonly distributed.

In giving this outline of the Molluscan Fauna of our neighbourhood, the writer has called attention to the valuable papers on Embryology by Professor E. Ray Lankester, as shedding great light on the affinities of the Mollusca with other groups.

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Chapter IV.
Insects.

BY W. G. BLATCH.

The neighbourhood of Birmingham, and in fact the Midland district generally, has never been considered particularly rich in either the number or variety of its insect productions, and it is a fact that a collection of Midland species, of whatever order, shows very wide gaps, both in genera and species, when compared with one formed in the east or south of England. Nevertheless, the Midland Counties are not entirely barren in this respect, and a catalogue of the insects known to occur within a radius of twenty miles of Birmingham would be a very respectable one. During the last few years a large number of very interesting species have been discovered, and there can be no doubt that with more workers and greater enthusiasm considerable additions would continue to be made. By extending the radius somewhat our list would embrace a good array of species which seem to be peculiar to the Midlands, such as Bembidium adustum, Eutheia clavata, Euplectus nubigena, Teredus nitidus, Macronychus quadrituberculatus, Hylecœtus dermestoides, Tropideres sepicola, Bagöus diglyptus, Notodonta bicolor, &c., &c. At any rate these insects have not hitherto been detected in any other British localities. It is much to be regretted that local entomology suffers greatly from two untoward circumstances, viz., the lack of students and the want of a carefully compiled list of species of the several orders. The publication of a catalogue of local insects as far as our present knowledge extends, would undoubtedly tend to stimulate the intelligent pursuit of this study, and it seems surprising that such an important work has not long ago been undertaken by the Natural History Societies of the district.

Having regard to the limited space allowed for this paper its object will, perhaps, best be secured by giving as full a list as possible, of the rarer and more interesting species belonging to the two most popular orders, viz., the Coleoptera and the Lepidoptera, together with some of the localities in which they occur. With few exceptions the references will be to insects which inhabit the twenty miles radius, a wider range being taken only in specially interesting cases, but even then it will be impossible to give anything like an adequate idea of the beetles, butterflies, and moths of the district.

To prevent the possibility of error it should be stated that the nomenclature adopted is (for the beetles) that of the “Catalogue of British Coleoptera, by Matthews and Fowler, 1883,” and (for the butterflies and moths) “Synonymic List of British Lepidoptera, by Richard South, 1884.”

Coleoptera.

This order is well represented; certain localities in the district are favourable to their existence and economy, and many rarities occur. Only one Cicindela (Cicindela campestris) inhabits our district and that is generally distributed and plentiful, especially in sandy places. The curious and elegant Cychrus rostratus is often found under stones and loose bark at Dudley and Bewdley, and the handsome Carabus nitens and its congener C. arvensis, may be taken on Cannock Chase, both species being now very scarce. Elaphrus riparius and E. cupreus occur not uncommonly in wet and boggy places. Notiophilus substriatus (generally a sea-side species) may be found occasionally on Cannock Chase, and so also may the curious Nebria livida. This latter beetle was first discovered on the Chase by Mr. J. T. Harris, and the writer has verified its occurrence there many times. It is a remarkable fact that this is the only known instance of this species inhabiting an inland locality—its head quarters being at Bridlington Quay and two or three other parts of the north-east coast—it lives in the argillaceous cliffs, and on Cannock Chase it is met with in a similar formation.

Of the curious genus Dyschirius two species only appear to have settled in our neighbourhood, viz., D. æneus and D. globosus, both occur at Bewdley and on Cannock Chase—the latter also at Coleshill and Sutton Park.

The genus Bembidium is well represented, 33 of the 50 British species and varieties being taken in the Birmingham district. A few may be named: B. rufescens, under bark and in damp places; B. quinquestriatum, on walls at Smallheath and Olton; B. Mannerheimii, Knowle, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; B. articulatum, Knowle, Bewdley; B. nigricorne, Cannock Chase; B. monticola, Bewdley; B. Stephensi, Sutton Park; B. prasinum, Bewdley. In this connection the writer may perhaps be allowed to refer to the finding by himself of B. adustum in large numbers at Tewkesbury. This species was previously represented only by a very few old specimens, and had not been found for more than 40 years, until he had the pleasure of re-establishing it.

Patrobus assimilis is found sparingly on Cannock Chase; Trechus discus, T. micros and T. secalis, are plentiful in the river banks at Bewdley; T. micros occasionally turns up at Smallheath amongst bones placed in the garden as a trap for Homalotæ; T. obtusus has occurred at Bewdley and Cannock Chase, and in the latter locality the writer once found a few examples of the rare T. rubens.

The important genus Pterostichus has many representatives: P. versicolor, at Solihull, Sutton Park, and Cannock Chase; P. lepidus, Cannock Chase; P. picimanus and P. anthracinus, Bewdley; P. minor, Coleshill and Cannock Chase; Platyderus ruficollis seems to be generally distributed, but scarce. Amara fulva may frequently be taken under stones in sandy places at Sutton Park, Cannock Chase, and Bewdley; A. consularis at Sutton Park and Hopwas Wood; A. spinipes, at Dudley and Bewdley; A. patricia, Cannock Chase; A. acuminata, Sutton Park; A. lunicollis, Small Heath, Sutton, Cannock Chase, and Bewdley; A. continua, A. communis, and A. ovata, at Knowle, Coleshill, and Bewdley.

Badister sodalis is to be had at Dudley and Bewdley. All the species of Calathus occur, and Taphria nivalis, a closely allied beetle, turns up now and again, singly, at Small Heath, Knowle, Bewdley, and Trench Woods. The Anchomeni are fairly well represented, and it seems very likely that additional species may yet be added to our local list. The following may be selected as most worthy of notice: Anchomenus oblongus, Bewdley; A. atratus, Coleshill, Cannock Chase, and Bewdley. A single Lebia chlorocephala was captured in hedge rubbish near Acock’s Green. Dromius quadrisignatus is a Sutton Park species, being found rarely under bark of Oak trees. Blechrus maurus, which seems decidedly out of its reckoning in a Midland locality, has been taken at Bewdley and Leamington. All the species of Metabletus occur, and are pretty generally distributed. Cymindis vaporariorum inhabits Cannock Chase, where it may be found lurking under the heather and loose stones, but is not abundant. In the same locality the curious Miscodera arctica may, in some seasons, be met with in plenty. Two species of Chlænius occur, viz.: C. vestitus at Bewdley, and C. nigricornis at Cannock Chase. Of the extensive genus Harpalus, the following species may be cited, it being understood that several of the commoner forms exist here in great abundance. H. puncticollis, Dudley and Bewdley; H. griseus, Cannock Chase; H. tardus, Sutton Park and Bewdley. The pretty little Acupalpus exiguus and v. luridus may be obtained by searching the Sphagnum on the margin of Coleshill Pool. All the Bradycelli, except B. placidus and B. collaris, are plentiful in the district, and in certain spots, such as Cannock Chase, they are extremely abundant. Anisodactylus binotatus occurs on Cannock Chase, but is not often to be found.

The water beetles are pretty numerously represented in the district generally, the best localities for them being Coleshill, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase, and Bewdley. It must suffice to mention a few of the rarer or more striking kinds, e.g., Brychius elevatus, at Yardley and Knowle; Haliplus cinereus, at Knowle; Hydroporus septentrionalis, Bewdley; H. marginatus, Knowle; H. picipes, Cannock Chase; H. lepidus, Knowle, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; H. duodecimpustulatus, Bewdley; H. assimilis, Sutton Park, Knowle, Cannock Chase; H. dorsalis, Yardley, Knowle; H. marginatus, Knowle; H. nigrita, Knowle, Bewdley; H. monticola, Cannock Chase; H. neglectus, Cannock Chase; H. umbrosus, Knowle; H. augustatus, Knowle; Ilybius ater, Knowle, Cannock Chase; I. guttiger, Coleshill; Agabus Solieri, Knowle; A. affinis, Sutton Park; Gyrinus caspius, Hopwas; Hydrobius picicrus, Knowle; Laccobius sinuatus, Knowle; L. alutaceus, Knowle; L. minutus, Cannock Chase; L. bipunctatus, Cannock Chase; Limnebius nitidus, Knowle, Bewdley; L. picinus, Knowle; Chætarthria seminulum, Cannock Chase; Helophorus æqualis, Bewdley; H. Mulsanti, Bewdley; Hydrochus augustatus, Knowle; Hydræna palustris, Bewdley; H. nigrita, Knowle, Bewdley; H. atricapilla, Knowle; the rare Leptinus testaceus has been taken at Needwood in the nests of wild bees. Agathidium nigripenne Sutton Park; A. lævigatum, Knowle, Dudley; A. atrum, Yardley, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase; A. seminulum, Coleshill, Knowle, Cannock Chase; A. varians, Knowle; A. rotundatum, Cannock Chase; A. convexum, Hopwas Wood; Amphicyllis globus, Bewdley; Leoides orbicularis, Cannock Chase; Anisotoma picea, Cannock Chase; A. litura, Knowle.

Several of the Burying Beetles—Necrophorus and Silpha—occur generally in the district, as also do many of the Cholevæ. Colons are conspicuous by their absence—only two species having put in an appearance, viz: Colon dentipes, Knowle; and C. brunneum, Knowle. The interesting groups of Scydmænidæ and Pselaphidæ are remarkably well represented, but room can be found for only a few of the rarer species: e.g., Scydmænus exilis, Sutton Park, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase, Bewdley; S. angulatus, Cannock Chase; S. hirticollis, Sutton Park; Eutheia plicata, Budden Wood, E. Schaumii, Smallheath, Knowle; E. Scydmænoides, Knowle (abundantly); E. clavata, new to Britain, discovered by the writer in Sherwood Forest; Bryaxis impressa, Coleshill; Euplectus punctatus, Knowle, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; E. nigricans, throughout the district; E. nanus, Edgbaston, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; E. bicolor, Sutton Park, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase, Bewdley; E. nubigena, a very distinct species, new to Britain, discovered by the writer in Sherwood Forest in 1885.

The Brachelytra have not had much attention paid to them in the Midlands, the group being a very large one, and the species mostly difficult to determine. These insects are plentiful in the district and many rare forms occur. A few only, comparatively, can be here specified:—Ischnoglossa corticina, Olton, Sutton Park, Old Hill; Thiasophila angulata, Hopwas Wood, Bewdley (Ants’ Nests); Dinarda Markelii, Bewdley (in Ants’ Nests); Atemeles emarginatus, Bewdley (in Ants’ Nests); Ilyobates nigricollis, Callicerus obscurus, C. rigidicornis, Knowle; Tachyusa scitula, Bewdley; Ocyusa maura, Coleshill; O. picina, Sutton Park, Bewdley; Oxypoda exoleta, Smallheath, O. recondita, Budden Wood (Ants’ Nests, Formica rufa); O. sericea, new to Britain, Smallheath, Edgbaston, Knowle.

In the genus Homalota there are 160 British species, of which the writer has, up to the present, found 93 in the Birmingham district. The following may be noted: H. currax and H. insecta, Bewdley; H. pavens, Smallheath; H. eximia, Bewdley (previously only found on banks of Scotch rivers); H. luteipes, Bewdley; H. sylvicola, Coleshill, Cannock Chase, Bewdley; H. monticola, Smallheath; H. curtipennis, Sutton Park; H. autumnalis, Knowle, Old Hill, Bewdley, Middleton, near Tamworth; Gymnusa brevicollis and G. variegata occur on Cannock Chase, the latter also at Sutton Park; Megacronus inclinans may be found at Bewdley, and M. cingulatus at Sutton Park and Cannock Chase; Staphylinus latebricola (in Ants’ Nests), at Sutton Park and Bewdley; Philonthus fulvipes, Sutton Park; Ancyrophorus homalinus, Bewdley; Trogophlœus halophilus, Hopwas Wood(!); Deleaster dichrous and var. adustus, Bewdley; Geodromicus nigrita, Bewdley; Deliphrum tectum, Knowle; Acidota crenata, Coleshill; A. cruentata, Sutton Park; Coryphium augusticolle, Sutton Park, Knowle, Hopwas; Homalium Allardi, Smallheath; H. punctipenne, Edgbaston, Sutton Park, Knowle, Bewdley; H. deplanatum, Knowle, Cannock Chase; H. brevicorne, Knowle; H. gracilicorne, Sutton Park, Hopwas Wood; H. salicis, Sherwood Forest; Phlœocharis subtilissima and Prognatha quadricornis, Sutton Park, Needwood.

Many of the Trichopterygidæ are found in profusion, including a good number of rare species. Ptinella testacea, P. denticollis, P. aptera, and P. angustula, are all plentiful in various parts of the district, from Smallheath and Knowle to Cannock Chase and Bewdley Forest. Pteryx suturalis is also generally distributed and fairly abundant. Several good species of Trichopteryx occur in hot-beds at Knowle and Edgbaston, and also on the river banks at Bewdley. Millidium trisulcatum sometimes swarms in one spot at Knowle. Ptenidium Gressneri, a new British species, may be mentioned as having been captured in 1885 at Sherwood Forest. Triplax russica abounds on Cannock Chase, and T. ænea may be taken sparingly at Needwood. The very rare Teredus nitidus, after being lost sight of for nearly 50 years, was again found in Sherwood Forest by the writer in 1884 and 1885. Myrmetes piceus, Hopwas Wood, Bewdley; Gnathoncus rotundatus, Cannock Chase; var. punctulatus, Knowle; Abræus granulum, Salford Priors; Plegaderus dissectus, Cannock Chase, Salford Priors; Epuræa augustula, Sutton Park; Cryptarcha strigata and C. imperialis, Knowle; Rhizophagus: nine of the species occur in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, and the tenth, R. cœruleipennis has been taken at Matlock; Thymalus limbatus, Cannock Chase; Psammæchus bipunctatus, Coleshill, Sutton Park; Antherophagus nigricornis, Bewdley; A. silaceus, Marston Green, Bewdley; A. pallens, Solihull, Bewdley; Myrmecoxenus, vaporariorum, Edgbaston, Knowle; Scaphidium quadrimaculatum may be taken at Cannock Chase and Bewdley; Diphyllus lunatus, in the same localities and also near Knowle; Byrrhus fasciatus and B. dorsalis, at Cannock Chase; Georyssus pygmæus, Bewdley. The remarkable beetle, Macronychus quadrituberculatus, should be included in this list, its only British habitat being the river Dove, near Burton-on-Trent.

Coming now to the Lamellicornia, the following species may be noted: Lucanus cervus, Bewdley; Dorcus parallelopipedus, Bewdley, Cannock Chase, Salford Priors; Aphodius tesselatus and A. porcus, Sutton Park; Ammœcius brevis, Bewdley (banks of Severn); Trox sabulosus and T. scaber, Bewdley and Cannock Chase; Hoplia philanthus, Bewdley, Knowle, &c. Of the Serricornia, a few examples may be given: e.g., Agrilus augustatus and A. laticornis, Bewdley; the brilliant Trachys troglodytes, quite a Southern species, which the writer has on several occasions captured in an old pasture at Knowle; Elater coccinatus, Sherwood; E. pomorum, Cannock Chase; E. balteatus, Coleshill, Sutton Park, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; Athöus rhombeus, Sherwood; Corymbites pectinicornis, C. cupreus, and var. æruginosus, C. æneus, Knowle, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; Sericosomus brunneus and v. fugax, Cannock Chase; Hydrocyphon deflexicollis, Bewdley; Scirtes hemisphæricus, Cannock Chase; Lampyris noctiluca is spread over the whole district, but is most abundant in Bewdley Forest; Malachius æneus is found at Knowle, and Haplocnemus impressus at Sutton Park; Clerus formicarius occurs at Salford Priors; Hylecœtus dermestoides and Sphindus dubius at Cannock Chase and Sherwood Forest; Niptus crenatus and Hedobia imperialis occur at Knowle.

Of the Longicornia, it must suffice to mention the following:—Prionus coriarius, Aston and Cannock Chase; Callidium alni, Knowle; Clytus mysticus, Bewdley; Pachyta collaris and P. octomaculata, Bewdley; Strangalia quadrifasciata, Bewdley and Cannock Chase; S. nigra, Bewdley.

Many of the Donaciæ are plentiful, perhaps the most interesting local species being D. affinis, which is found at Knowle.

Clythra tridentata and C. quadripunctata inhabit Bewdley Forest, but C. tridentata is very rarely met with. Cryptocephalus coryli, C. punctiger, and C. fulcratus may be beaten out of birches on Cannock Chase, and at Chartley the Scotch species, C. decempunctatus, has been taken.

Salpingus ater is at Knowle, and S. castaneus at Coleshill and Cannock Chase. The curious Notoxus monoceros is abundant at Kidderminster and Bewdley.

Among the Rhynchophora the following may be noted: Platyrhinus latirostris and Anthribus albinus, Salford Priors; Tropideres sepicola, Budden Wood (unique); Choragus Sheppardi, Salford Priors; Apion Hookeri, Knowle and Trench Woods; A. filirostre, Trench Woods; Cænopsis fissirostris and C. Waltoni, Cannock Chase, also on Hartlebury Common; Cleonus sulcirostris, Erdington; Cœliodes geranii and C. exiguus, Bewdley; Amalus scortillum, Bewdley, Salford Priors; Magdalinus barbicornis, Bewdley; Rhyncolus gracilis, Sherwood Forest is noteworthy; Phiœophthorus rhododactylus, Bewdley; Scolytus destructor, Yardley; S. intricatus and S. rugulosus, Bewdley; Xylocleptes bispinus, Sutton Park and Malvern.

Lepidoptera.

This order has received the lion’s share of attention from local collectors, with the result that a very fair proportion of the British Micro-Lepidoptera has been discovered in the district. The Micro-Lepidoptera have, however, not been looked up with any enthusiasm, and consequently our knowledge of the extent to which these interesting little moths occur about us is extremely limited.

The Rhopalocera include all the common species, and also a few which are always considered desirable by every collector. At Bewdley, Aporia cratægi used to be found, and doubtless could yet be obtained if carefully sought for. Leucophasia sinapis flies more or less abundantly at Bewdley Forest and Trench Woods; it has also been occasionally taken in woods near Knowle. Colias edusa always an erratic species, sometimes visits the Midlands, and has been captured at Yardley, Coleshill, Knowle, and other places. C. hyale also turned up once or twice in the district. Gonopteryx rhamni is generally distributed and plentiful. Argynnis selene, A. euphrosyne, A. aglaia, A. adippe, and A. paphia occur near Knowle, and at Bewdley they are all found in great abundance; the variety valesina has likewise been captured in the Forest. Melitæa aurinia is not rare in certain spots near Knowle and Bewdley. Vanessa C. album may occasionally be seen flying in the streets of Birmingham, especially in the region of Sparkbrook and Moseley. V. polychloros flies at Knowle. V. antiopa has several times been captured at Bewdley; and V. io, V. atalanta, and V. cardui are met with throughout the district.

The occurrence of Limenitis sibylla has not been heard of nearer than Church Stretton, but Apatura iris has been taken in woods not far from Coventry and Leamington. Melanargia galatea is a common butterfly at Salford Priors and Trench Woods. Epinephele hyperanthes is abundant at Bewdley. The southern limit of Cænonympha typhon appears to be Chartley Moss, where the butterfly (both light and dark forms) is anything but rare. Thecla betulæ, T. W. album, T. pruni, and T. quercus fly at Trench Woods; T. quercus also near Knowle, at Bewdley, &c.; and T. rubi is extremely plentiful at Sutton Park and Cannock Chase. Lycæna argiolus is found in several localities near Birmingham, but abounds in the Holly Woods at Sutton Park. L. semiargus used to be taken many years since, close to Birmingham, but seems to have become quite extinct.

In the division Heterocera the following list of selected species with localities must suffice to represent the moths of the district:—Acherontia atropos, Knowle, Dudley, Bewdley; Sphinx convolvuli, Birmingham (frequent); S. ligustri, Knowle, Sutton, Bewdley; Deilephila galii and D. livornica, Birmingham (occasional); Chærocampa celerio, Birmingham (1868); C. nerii, Birmingham (1869); C. porcellus, Sutton Park; C. elpenor, Solihull, Hockley Heath; Smerinthus ocellatus, S. populi and S. tiliæ are found throughout the district. Macroglossa stellatarum affects all our localities; M. fuciformis and M. bombyliformis may be found near Knowle.

Ino statices at Olton, Marston Green, Knowle; Zygœna filipendulæ var. chrysanthemi, Bewdley Forest; Lithosia mesomella, Knowle, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; Euchelia jacobææ used to be found at Saltley; Nemeophila russula and N. plantaginis, Sutton Park, Chartley Moss; Spilosoma fuliginosa, Knowle; S. mendica, Smallheath; Cossus ligniperda, throughout the district; Zeuzera pyrina, Knowle; Heterogenea limacodes, Trench Woods; Leucoma salicis, Knowle; Psilura monacha, Sutton Park; Orgyia gnostigma, Bewdley, Coventry, Cannock Chase; Saturnia pavonia, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase; Drepana sicula, Trench Woods (one larva 1885); D. binaria, near Knowle; Dicranura furcula and D. bifida, near Knowle; Pterostoma palpina, Knowle; Notodonta bicolor, Burntwood, Staffordshire; N. dictæa, N. dictæoides, N. dromedarius, N. zizac, N. trimacula, Knowle, Bewdley; Thyatira derasa and T. batis, Knowle, Sutton Park; Asphalia flavicornis, Knowle, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase; A. ridens, Hopwas Wood; Acronycta tridens, Knowle (larvæ on Elm Trees); A. leporina, Knowle; A. aceris, Smallheath; A. alni, Smallheath, Edgbaston, Sutton Park; Nonagria arundinis, Knowle, &c.; Gortyna ochracea, Knowle, Bewdley; Agrotis suffusa, Knowle; A. ripæ, Bewdley; Triphæna ianthina, T. fimbria, T. interjecta, Yardley, Knowle, Bewdley, Trench Woods; Amphipyra pyramidea, Knowle; Panolus piniperda, Sutton Park; Tæniocampa gracilis, Yardley, Knowle; Anchocelis lunosa, Kidderminster; Xanthia citrago, X. fulvago, X. circellaris, Knowle; Eremobia ochroleuca, Acock’s Green, Yardley; Dianthæcia cucubali, Sparkbrook, Knowle; Hecatera serena, Bewdley Road, Kidderminster; Polia chi, throughout the district; Aplecta tincta, Knowle, Bewdley; Hadena glauca, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase; Xylocampa areola, Knowle; Calocampa vetusta, C. exoleta, Knowle, Sutton Park; Xylina ornithopus, Knowle; Cucullia verbasci, Knowle, Bewdley; C. chamomillæ and C. umbratica, Coleshill, Knowle, Dudley; Habrostola tripartita and H. triplasia, Knowle; Plusia interrogationis, Cannock Chase; Anarta myrtilli, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase, Bewdley Forest; Heliaca tenebrata, Sparkbrook, Knowle, Bewdley; Chariclea umbra, Coleshill; Erastria fasciana, Trench Woods; Phytometra viridaria, Knowle, Coleshill, Sutton, Cannock Chase, &c.; Euclidia mi and E. glyphica, Knowle, Bewdley, Trench Woods; Catocala nupta, Knowle, Bewdley, Bromsgrove; Brephos parthenias, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; Epione apiciaria, Knowle; Venilia macularia, Angerona prunaria and Eurymene dolobraria, Bewdley Forest; Pericallia syringaria, Smallheath, Hall Green, Knowle, Bewdley; Selenia lunaria, near Birmingham, Nyssia hispidaria, Sutton Park; Biston hirtaria, Cannock Chase; Amphidasys strataria, Knowle, Sutton Park; Hemerophila abruptaria, Edgbaston, Knowle; Boarmia roboraria, Bewdley, Cannock Chase; B. consortaria, Knowle, Bewdley, Trench Woods; Tephrosia punctularia, Cannock Chase, Trench Woods; Gnophos obscuraria, Bewdley; Pseudoterpna pruniate, Knowle; Geometra papilionaria, Knowle, Bewdley; Phorodesma pustulata, Solihull; Zonosoma porata, Z. pendularia; Erdington, Knowle, Bewdley, Trench Woods; Asthena luteata, A. candidata, A. sylvata, Knowle; A. blomeri, Hoar Cross; Acidalia fumata, Chartley; A. inornata, Chartley, Cannock Chase; Timandra amataria, Knowle; Bapta temerata, Trench Woods; Macaria liturata, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase; Bupalis piniaria, Knowle, Sutton Park, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase; Minoa murinata, Bewdley Forest; Aspilates strigillaria, Bewdley, Cannock Chase, Chartley; Abraxas sylvata, Hopwas Wood; Eupithecia venosata, Sutton Park, Cannock Chase; Lobophora halterata, Trench Woods; L. viretata, Sutton Park (some seasons very abundant); L. carpinata, Hopwas Wood; Thera variata, Sutton Park, Hopwas Wood, Cannock Chase; Hypsipetes ruberata, H. trifasciata, Solihull, Sutton Park, Bewdley; Melanippe hastata, Knowle, Bewdley; Anticlea sinuata, A. rubidata, A. badiata, A. derivata, Knowle; Camptogramma fluviata, Knowle; Cidaria miata, Knowle; Carsia paludata, var. imbutata, near Birmingham.

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Chapter V.
Microscopic Fauna.

BY THOMAS BOLTON, F.R.M.S.

The writer in drawing up the following summary of the local Microscopic Fauna, knowing how limited a space is allowed, has in several of the families given only the more rare and remarkable species which have come under his own observation. The organisms included in this division are abundant all round Birmingham; in the canals, reservoirs, and rivers, in the swags and catchpits, amongst the spoil heaps of the “Black Country,” and in the numerous clay-pits on the farm lands.

INSECTA.

It is desirable to call attention to the identification of the larvæ of the Trichopterous insects Agraylea multipunctata and Oxyethira costalis, by Messrs. Kenneth J. Morton and Robert McLachlan. The perfect insects were bred from larvæ collected in this district, as referred to in the “Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine,” May and June, 1886. So many problems in the life history of insects, having aquatic larvæ, remain unsolved, that it is desirable that microscopists should pay more attention to this subject.

ARACHNIDA.

The curious Diving-bell Spider, Argyroneta aquatica, is found in the pools at Sutton Park; and a great variety of species of the Water-Mites is generally distributed. Mr W. Saville Kent reports that several specimens received from this district are new to science.

Tardigrada, viz., Macrobiotus Hufelandii, and other species, may be found almost everywhere, if carefully looked for amongst damp moss and decaying algæ.

CRUSTACEA.

In this class should be mentioned the freshwater Crayfish, Astacus fluviatilis, not of course a microscopic organism; but if it were omitted here it would not appear in any of the other reports. This species is fairly distributed in most of the smaller brooks, in the canals, and larger reservoirs, but is not so abundant or so large as it is on the lime formations round Oxford. Two other large microscopic species of this class, the freshwater Shrimp, Gammarus pulex, and the water Wood-louse, Asellus vulgaris, are always present, the former busy in its office of scavenger in the sandy bottoms of the brooks and ditches, and the latter climbing about, like a monkey, amongst the water weeds, investigating the mass of living and decaying organisms with which the weeds are clothed.

Entomostraca.

The members of this sub-class are also to be found everywhere, but it is desirable to call special attention to the discovery for the first time in Great Britain of the wonderfully transparent Leptodora hyalina, at a visit of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society in 1879, to the Olton Reservoir, near Solihull. It has since been found in many localities, and is very abundant in the summer and autumn in the Warwick Canal and several reservoirs. Hyalodaphnia Kahlbergensis is very generally found with it. Argulus coregoni is found in the Birmingham and Warwick Canal. It had only been discovered in Great Britain previously in the tanks of the Royal Aquarium at Westminster, which, of course, are not used for British fish exclusively. The Fairy-shrimp, Chirocephalus diaphanus, is found in only one locality in the district, near Knowle. A few specimens of the very rare Lynceus acanthocercoides were found near Bewdley, and amongst other local finds may be mentioned Moina rectirostris, Macrothrix roseus, and Ilyocryptus sordidus.

POLYZOA.

These are generally distributed; Alcyonella fungosa, Plumatella repens, Fredericella sultana, and Paludicella Ehrenbergii cover the root-fibres under the banks of the River Avon, at Evesham. Lophopus crystallinus is occasionally found in the brooks to the south west of Birmingham. Cristatella mucedo is often very abundant in the larger reservoirs at Sutton Park, Barnt Green, Olton, &c. Fredericella and Paludicella, have several times been seen in the town water supplied by the Corporation.

ROTIFERA.

The district appears to be very rich in these organisms, and a good number of new species from this locality are enumerated in the admirable Monograph on this family now being published by Dr. C. T. Hudson and Mr. P. H. Gosse. In the five parts already published (July 12th, 1886), they record one hundred and ninety-two species, of which ninety-eight have been found in this district, twenty-two being new species. Of the fifteen Flosculariæ eight species have been found here, viz., Flosculariæ regalis (new), F. coronetta, F. ornata, F. cornuta, F. campanulata, F. ambigua, F. calva, and F. mutabilis (new). Stephanoceros Eichhornii may sometimes be seen quite clothing the water weeds in the canals and pools. The always attractive building Wheel-animalcule, Melicerta ringens, is occasionally present in abundance in the canals, rivers, and pools all over the district. The writer has taken Melicerta conifera several times. Melicerta tubicolaria was found by Dr. Hudson in Sutton Park, and has since been found in other localities in this district. Limnias ceratophylli is very generally abundant. Limnias annulatus has been found in two places. Œcistes cystallinus is common, and Œ. intermedius not uncommon. Although beyond the radius, it may be interesting to note that Melicerta Janus, new to England, was taken in one of the Shropshire meres, by the writer on the 23rd of June, 1886. It had only been found in Scotland before, by Mr. Hood, in 1880. The new rotifer, Œcistes umbella, was found by Mr. A. W. Wills, together with the rare Œ. pilula in a pool at Sutton Park. The charming clustered rotifer, Lacinularia socialis, only appears in the hot summer months, but was surprisingly abundant last year in the River Avon at Warwick, literally clothing the weeds with life. This rotifer was in fair abundance a few years back in the Barnt Green Reservoir, and last year in the neighbouring canal. The still more charming free-swimming clustered rotifer, Conochilus volvox, is more generally present, but is not always easy to detect, on account of its transparency and continuous quick movements. The writer has taken this rotifer in the pools at Sutton Park with a muslin net in such abundance as to form quite a jelly at the bottom of the net. He also found a new species, Conochilus dossuarius, in 1884. Of the Philodinidæ, the following have been found—Philodina roseola, P. citrina, P. megalotrocha, P. aculeata; Rotifer vulgaris, R. tardus, R. macroceros, R. macrurus; Actinurus Neptunius, Callidina elegans, and Adineta vaga. The rare and pretty little Microdon clavus may be found swimming about in Coleshill pool. Asplanchna, Synchæta, Polyarthra, and Triarthra, may be netted in enormous numbers in the summer months, especially in all the canals and larger pools, and they occasionally abound in the smaller pools and even in ditches, together with a great variety of the creeping ones, such as Philodina, Rotifer, Notommata, Brachionus, Anuræa, &c. The wonderful variety of these living together in a small ditch in Sutton Park is reported upon in a short paper read by the writer before the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society in February last, and published in the “Midland Naturalist,” July, 1886. Hydatina senta and Rhinops vitrea may be looked for amongst the Euglena viridis often seen luxuriating in farm yard drainage. The abnormal species, Pedalion mira, was found at Knowle in 1884, in fair abundance. The spiny Anuræa longispina was found at Olton Reservoir very soon after it was first discovered in America, and it soon afterwards abounded in the town water, and may be found in most large reservoirs.

ANNELIDA, ETC.

Some interesting examples of the Oligochæta have been found in this locality, most of which have been identified by Professor E. Ray Lankester or Mr. E. C. Bousfield, and of these the following are noteworthy—Chætogaster limnæi, and C. diaphanus, Nais hamata, N. lurida, N. appendiculata, and N. barbata; Stylaria parasitica, Dero digitata, D. obtusa, D. Perrieri, D. limosa, and D. crassa; Salvina serpentina, and Ælosoma quaternarium. The Cercaria (the larva of a fluke) which infests the common Water Snail, Limnæa stagnatis, is occasionally found; also Mesostomum rostratum, Derostomum vorax, Planaria lactea, and Piscicola geometrica.

HYDROZOA.

Both Hydra vulgaris and H. viridis are of course found everywhere. Cordylophora lacustris, which is usually more abundant in brackish water, was found last year in the canal at Hamstead, near Handsworth. The writer has found it in the Stourbridge canal, and in the River Stour. Some years back the writer heard of a canal boat being docked at Dudley Port which was found to be clothed with this Hydrozoon as with velvet.

SPONGIDA.

The freshwater sponges, Spongilla fluviatilis and S. lacustris, are abundant, but no one has taken up the subject in this district, to work out the different species into which this genus is now divided.

INFUSORIA.

When Mr. W. Saville Kent was preparing his manual on this subject, he was supplied with a great variety of specimens from this district, many of which proved to be new ones. The following are worthy of mention: Anthophysa vegetans, Rhipidodendron Huxleyi, Spongomonas intestinalis; various Codosigæ and other Choano-flagellate monads, including Salpingœca Boltoni, Kent, (new); Euglena acus; Dinobryon sertularia; Synura uvella; Uroglena volvox (very general); Distigma proteus; Hemidinium nasutum; Peridinium tabulatum; Ceratium longicorne; Nassula ornata; Trachelius ovum; Spirostomum teres, and S. ambiguum; Stentor polymorphus, S. Barretti, S. cœruleus, and S. niger; Folliculina Boltoni, Kent (new.) The writer has found several free swimming Tintinnus, not corresponding with any that Mr. W. Saville Kent enumerates; Didinium nasutum; Trichodina pediculus; Scyphidium Fromentellii; Spirochona gemmipara; Vorticella chlorostigma, and V. monilata; Carchesium polypinum, and C. epistylidis; Zoothamnium arbuscula; Vaginicola tincta; Thuricola folliculata; Cothurnia imberbis; Ophrydium versatile, O. Eichhornii, and O. sessile; Stichotricha remex; Atineta lemnarum, A. grandis, and A. mystacina; Dendrosoma radians.

RHIZOPODA.

The following have been found: Amœba proteus, A. verrucosa, A. radiosa, and A. villosa; Ouramœba vorax; Lithamœba vorax, Lankester (new); Difflugia pyriformis, D. spiralis, and D. corona; Cyphoderia umbella; Arcella vulgaris; Actinophrys sol; Raphidiophrys pallida, and R. elegans; Actinosphærium Eichhornii; Acanthocystis chætophora; Archerina Boltoni, Lankester (new); Clathrulina elegans, and Biomyxa vagans.

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PART V.
BOTANY.

Introductory Remarks.

BY WM. MATHEWS, M.A.

In attempting to describe the more interesting features of the indigenous Flora of the neighbourhood of Birmingham, it is necessary to define the limits of the district intended to be included. A circle of 20 miles radius, with the Town Hall as its centre, has been found convenient as an approximate boundary. This will enclose portions of the three counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, which meet at a point on the south-western edge of the Borough, and a small part of the County of Salop. The latter, with the exception shortly to be mentioned, will be excluded from consideration. On the other hand, the radius must be extended about two miles on the south-east to take in the town of Stratford-on-Avon, and about the same distance on the west to take in the woodlands west of the Severn from Shrawley Wood to Wyre Forest near Bewdley. A part of the Forest is in Salop, and to this extent only is the latter county admitted. The district thus defined contains an area of about 12,500 square miles. It includes the towns of Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Nuneaton, Coventry, Leamington, Warwick, Stratford, and Alcester, in the County of Warwick; of Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Stourport, Bewdley, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Halesowen, and Dudley, in Worcester; of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Penkridge, Cannock, Rugeley, and Lichfield, in Stafford.

The vegetation of any district depends partly on the nature of the soil, as determined by its geological structure, partly on altitude and drainage areas, and partly on the character of the surface, whether water, bog, heath, arable, pasture or woodland. The geology has been treated of in a previous part of this volume. It will be sufficient to say here that the red rocks of the Trias occupy by far the largest portion of the area, and that calcareous soils are rare. An elevated line of country, commencing north of Wolverhampton, runs in a southerly direction, by Sedgley, Dudley, and the Rowley Hills, to Frankley Beeches and the Upper Lickey, where it attains an altitude of about 900 feet above the sea. This is the great water parting of central England which divides the drainage areas of the Trent and Severn. From the Lickey, a line of lower elevation runs in a westerly direction and divides the tributaries of the Trent from those of the Avon. The subordinate river basins and surface characteristics will be noticed in the special articles.

A brief outline of the history of the Botany of the Midland Counties may be useful to students, and is therefore included in these remarks. It commences with the honoured name of William Withering, one of the most eminent of British Botanists. Born at Wellington, in Shropshire, in 1741, he practised as a physician in Birmingham, where he died in 1799. The first edition of his well-known “Botanical arrangement of British Plants,” in two volumes, was published in 1776; the second, in three vols. in 1787; the third, in four vols. in 1796. It passed through five further editions, in four volumes, after his death. Numerous references to localities in the neighbourhood of Birmingham are contained in these volumes.

Scarcely less distinguished was Thomas Purton (1768-1833), surgeon, of Alcester, the author of “The Midland Flora.” The first two volumes of the work appeared in 1817, the third in 1821. They contain copious descriptions of local habitats in the counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford.

Nash’s “History of Worcestershire,” 1781, contains (Introduction p. lxxxix.) a list of forty-three rare plants, two only of which, Vaccinium Oxycoccos and Comarum palustre, recorded as growing at the Lickey, belong to the Birmingham district. The Supplement (1799) has a further list of forty-seven plants, four of which belong to the district.

The late W. G. Perry, bookseller, of Warwick, published at Warwick, in 1820, the first Flora of that county, under the title of “Plantæ Varvicenses Selectæ.” He also contributed to the Magazine of Natural History, Vol. iv., p. 450, 1831, a list of some of the rarer plants of Worcestershire, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Kidderminster and Bewdley.

The “History of Stourbridge,” by William Scott, Stourbridge, 1832, contains a list of plants from the neighbourhood of that town, in the counties of Worcester and Stafford.

For a knowledge of the plants of the immediate vicinity of Birmingham, and particularly of the once celebrated “Moseley Wake Green,” Botanists are chiefly indebted to the late William Ick, Secretary of the old Philosophical Society of Birmingham. Mr. Ick published two lists; the first in “The Analyst,” for 1837, Vol. vi., p. 20; the second in the “Midland Counties Herald,” Aug. 1838.

The present Mrs. Avery, then Miss M. A. Beilby, was a frequent visitor to Moseley at about that date, and has obliged the writer with a list of the rarities gathered by her at Moseley Bog and Common in 1835 and 1836.

A list of some of the rarer plants of the neighbourhood of Birmingham, by Saml. Freeman, appeared in the first series of the Phytologist, Vol. i., p. 261.

The Rev. W. T. Bree, Rector of Allesley, near Coventry, was a well-known Botanist. He contributed to Purton’s Midland Flora, to the Magazine of Natural History, and to the first series of the Phytologist, many notices of the plants of the northern part of his county.

The first volume of the last named serial, 1844, pp. 508-514, contains an account of the ferns of Stafford, Warwick, and Worcester, from the pen of the Editor, the late Edward Newman.

The second series of the Phytologist, 1855 to 1863, was edited by the late Alexander Irvine of Chelsea. Several plants from the neighbourhood of Clent and Churchill are recorded by the Editor, in an article on the “Botany of the Clent Hills,” Vol. ii., p. 385, April, 1858.

The Studies of Warwickshire Fungi, made by the late Mrs. F. Russell, of Kenilworth, will be noticed in the article on that group of plants.

The County Botany of Worcester has been associated for upwards of half a century, with the name of the veteran Worcester Botanist, Mr. Edwin Lees. His first observations, made in conjunction with the late Dr. Streeten, were published in Hastings’s “Illustrations of the Natural History of Worcestershire,” (1834). These, together with a further list supplied by him to the late H. C. Watson, are incorporated in the Catalogue of Worcestershire plants in “The New Botanists’ Guide,” (1835). The same work contains lists of the plants of Warwick and Stafford. In 1867, Mr. Lees published his “Botany of Worcester,” the only complete record of the flowering plants and ferns of the whole county, which has yet appeared. His “Botany of the Malvern Hills,” which has passed through three editions, relates to a part of the county outside the limits of the Birmingham district.

The plants of the north-east of the county are enumerated in the “Flora of the Clent and Lickey Hills,” by the present writer. First edition, 1868; Second Edition, 1881. He has been indebted for assistance to many friends, too numerous to mention in this notice.

“The Natural History of Stafford,” by R. Garner, 1884, contains a list of the rarer plants of that county. Our more recent knowledge of its botany is due to Dr. Fraser, of Wolverhampton, whose discoveries are published in the Reports of the Botanical Record Club, 1873-1883. These reports contain also many district records communicated by the Editor, Dr. F. Arnold Lees, and by Mr. J. E. Bagnall.

The modern geographical botany of Warwick is the work of members of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopal Society, and especially of Mr. J. E. Bagnall, Mr. A. W. Wills, and Mr. W. B. Grove. The volumes of “The Midland Naturalist” have been enriched by numerous papers from these Botanists, for one of which, the monograph on the Pilobolidæ, published in Vol. vii., 1884, the Darwin Gold Medal of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies was awarded to Mr. Grove. Those relating to the Botany of the county are, by Mr. Bagnall, “The Distribution of the Roses,” (Vol. i, 1878), “The Moss Flora,” (Vols. ii. and iii., 1879-80), “The Hepaticæ,” (Vol. iii., 1880), and “The Flora of Warwickshire,” (Vols. iv.-ix., 1880-86); by Mr. Wills, “The Desmidiæ of Sutton Park,” (Vol. iii., 1880); by Mr. Grove, “The Fungi of the neighbourhood of Birmingham,” (Vols. v.-vii., 1882-84.)

The works of the late Hewett Cottrell Watson, the founder of the Science of the Geographical Botany of Great Britain, must not be passed over. Those containing provincial or comital records, besides the new Botanists’ Guide already mentioned, are the Cybele Britannica, 1847-1872; Topographical Botany, 1st edit., 1873-4, 2nd edit., 1883.

It may be interesting to mention that a Students’ Garden for economic and medicinal plants was laid out in 1882, in the Edgbaston Botanical Gardens, from the plans of Professor Hillhouse, of Mason College, and that a Students’ garden of British plants has been laid out, in the present year, in Cannon Hill Park, from the plans of Mr. J. W. Oliver, teacher of Botany at the Midland Institute. For the establishment of the latter garden, students are indebted to Mr. Alderman White, chairman of the Baths and Parks Committee of the Town Council.

County boundaries have been so generally adopted as the limits of local Floras, that it has been thought desirable to adhere to them, and to tabulate the plants separately for Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, whenever the materials at command have admitted of this division. The flowering plants and ferns present no difficulty, but with respect to the lower forms of vegetation it has not always been found possible to determine their comital distribution. The plants indigenous to the district are described in the following articles:—

The Flowering Plants and Ferns by Mr. J. E. Bagnall, assisted, as to Worcester, by the editor of the section, and, as to Stafford, by Dr. Fraser. The Mosses, Hepatics, and Lichens, by Mr. J. E. Bagnall. The Algæ, by Mr. A. W. Wills. The Fungi, by Mr. W. B. Grove.

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Chapter I.
The Flowering Plants, Ferns, &c.

BY J. E. BAGNALL, A.L.S.

The flowering plants, ferns, and fern allies of the Birmingham District will be described, as stated in the Introductory Remarks, under the heads of the three counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford. The total flora of the district comprises upwards of 1,116 flowering plants and ferns; of these 844 are native, 143 are varieties, 14 aliens, 42 colonists, and 73 are denizens. The nomenclature adopted is that of the 7th edition of the “London Catalogue of British Plants.”

WARWICK.

The Warwickshire portion of the district comprises the greater part of North Warwickshire, with a portion of South Warwickshire. It is watered by the Tame, with its affluents the Rea, Cole, Blythe, Bourne, and Anker; and the Avon with its affluents the Leam, Sow, Alne, and Arrow. The greatest elevations occur at Hartshill, Dosthill, Corley, Alne Hills, and Arrow, none of which exceed 550 feet above the sea. As a whole it is well wooded, but the woods are usually small and not productive of the rarer woodland species. Heath lands are mostly reclaimed, and the more extensive marshes and bogs drained, hence ericetal and bog plants are rare. It has been divided into the following sub-districts, bounded by the water partings of the river basins:—I. Tame, II. Blythe, III. Anker, IV. Avon, V. Sow, VI. Alne, VII. Arrow.

In presenting an account of the rarer plants as full a list from each sub-district (as space permits) will be given, but many of the plants cited for one or other sub-district may also be found in one or more of the others.

The plants marked by an asterisk* before the name are probably extinct.

I. Tame.—This sub-district embraces all those portions of the Tame valley not drained by the Blythe or Anker, and includes Sutton, Middleton, Water Orton, Kingsbury, Shustoke, and Arley. The country is generally flat, but is slightly elevated on both right and left banks, near Arley, Middleton, Dosthill, and Shustoke. In this district about 750 flowering plants and ferns are recorded; among the more rare are—

Ranunculus fluitans, R. Lenormandi, R. Lingua; Nymphæa alba; Viola palustris; Moenchia erecta; Ornithopus perpusillus; Comarum palustre; Rubus Schlechtendalii, R. rosaceus; Rosa sphærica; Callitriche obtusangula; Parnassia palustris; Galium uliginosum; Valeriana dioica; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Dipsacus pilosus; Carlina vulgaris; Carduus nutans; Leontodon hirtus; Jasione montana; Vaccinium Vitis-Idæa, V. Oxycoccos; Menyanthes trifoliata; Mentha rotundifolia; Calamintha Acinos; Scutellaria minor; Pinguicula vulgaris; Polygonum maculatum; Empetrum nigrum; Salix fusca; Juncus diffusus; Scirpus pauciflorus; Eriophorum vaginatum; Carex dioica, C. curta, C. Ehrhartiana, C. lævigata, C. fulva; Agrostis nigra; Botrychium Lunaria; Nephrodium Thelypteris; Chara opaca.

II. Blythe.—The Blythe, which rises on the borders of East Worcestershire near Earlswood, takes its course through Solihull, Knowle, Hampton-in-Arden, Packington, and Coleshill, to its confluence with the Tame, near Whitacre; with this is included the Cole, running through Marston Green and Coleshill. This sub-district is mostly flat, the soils are usually sand, marl, and clay. Heath lands occur near Earlswood and Coleshill; bogs and marshes near Coleshill and Barston. The recorded flora is about 820 flowering plants and ferns, the following being the more noteworthy:—

Thalictrum flavum; Aquilegia vulgaris; Drosera rotundifolia; Cerastium arvense; Sagina ciliata; *Elatine hexandra; Hypericum elodes; Geranium pyrenaicum; Genista tinctoria; Vicia tetrasperma; Rubus suberectus, R. adornatus; Rosa micrantha, R. surculosa, R. obtusifolia, R. Reuteri; Pyrus torminalis; Cotyledon Umbilicus; Œnanthe crocata; Chærophyllum Anthriscus; Sambucus Ebulus; Carduus pratensis; Anthemis arvensis; Bidens cernua, B. tripartita; Solidago virga-aurea; Lactuca muralis; Hieracium umbellatum; *Pyrola media; Linaria minor; Limosella aquatica; Veronica Buxbaumii; *Orobanche major; Mentha piperita; Stachys ambigua; Myosotis repens, M. sylvatica, M. collina, M. versicolor; Lysimachia vulgaris; Littorella lacustris; Populus canescens; Lemna gibba; Potomogeton rufescens; Orchis Morio; *Gymnadenia conopsea; Narthecium ossifragum; Rhynchospora alba; Scirpus multicaulis, S. cæspitosus; Carex elongata; Agrostis canina; Calamagrostis lanceolata.

III. Anker.—The Anker rises about 3 miles S.E. of Bedworth, drains the country about Bedworth, Nuneaton, Atherstone, Polesworth and Tamworth, and enters the Tame at Tamworth. The country it waters is usually flat, but on its left bank at Hartshill and Polesworth there is rising ground about 500 feet above sea level. In this sub-district the Warwickshire coalfields occur, and it is possibly due to the great prevalence of smoke that its flora is meagre and the plants often depauperated. The recorded flora is about 680 flowering plants and ferns, and among the more rare are:

*Myosurus minimus; Cardamine amara, C. impatiens; Viola Reichenbachiana; Stellaria aquatica; Tilia parvifolia; Rhamnus catharticus; Genista tinctoria; *Vicia sylvatica; Prunus insititia; Potentilla procumbens; Rubus calvatus, R. mucronulatus, R. Bloxamii, R. foliosus, R. Bellardi; Rosa andegavensis, R. bibracteata; Epilobium roseum; Œnanthe fluviatilis; Cornus sanguinea; Matricara Chamomilla; Wahlenbergia hederacea; Atropa Belladonna; Veronica polita; *Orobanche elatior; Rumex pratensis; Salix pentandra, S. rubra; Sparganium neglectum; Sagittaria sagittifolia; Butomus umbellatus; Potamogeton pusillus; Epipactis latifolia; Fritillaria Meleagris; Scirpus acicularis; Nardus stricta; Ceterach officinarum; Equisetum maximum; Chara Hedwigii.

IV. Avon.—This sub-district includes that portion of South Warwick within the area not drained by the Leam, Sow, Alne, and Arrow, including Milverton, Stoneleigh, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon, Bidford and Salford Priors. This valley is beautifully undulating and well-wooded, watered by many minor streams, with very varied soils and usually highly cultivated. Its flora is peculiar from the absence of bog and heath plants, the records comprising about 970 flowering plants and ferns, of which the following are the rarer:—

Ranunculus parviflorus; Papaver strigosum, P. Lecoqii; Sisymbrium Sophia; Erysimum cheiranthoides; Cheiranthus Cheiri; Diplotaxis muralis; Viola odorata; Dianthus Armeria; Hypericum dubium; Medicago maculata; Astragalus glycyphyllus; Trifolium subterraneum, T. scabrum, T. fragiferum, T. filiforme; Vicia lathyroides; Potentilla argentea; Rubus Guntheri, R. tuberculatus; Rosa stylosa; Poterium Sanguisorba; Geum intermedium; Epilobium tetragonum; Petroselinum segetum; Senecio erucifolius; Crepis biennis; Solanum nigrum; Mentha cardiaca; Myriophyllum alterniflorum, M. spicatum; Salix Hoffmanniana, S. Helix; Potamageton flabellatus; *Carex Bœninghauseniana; Carex acuta, C. pendula; Agrostis spica-venti; Bromus commutatus.

V. Sow.—The Sow, rises near Astley, and receives tributaries, draining Combe fields, Brinklow and Sow Waste on the east, and Allesley, Corley, and Kenilworth on the west. The high land about Corley divides the watersheds of the Tame and Avon. The flora of this sub-district is about 691 flowering plants and ferns, the more noteworthy being—

Ranunculus penicillatus, R. radians; *Arabis perfoliata; Geranium columbinum; Rubus humifusus, R. hirtus, R. Balfourianus, R. Guntheri; Rosa Doniana; Epilobium obscurum; Myriophyllum verticillatum; Callitriche hamulata; Saxifraga granulata; Pimpinella magna; Silaus pratensis; Arctium intermedium; Serratula tinctoria; Inula Conyza; Erigeron acris; *Lactuca virosa; Campanula patula; *Cuscuta Europæa; Verbena officinalis; *Mentha gentilis; Nepeta Cataria; Lamium maculatum; Cynoglossum montanum, C. officinale; Chenopodium rubrum; Potamogeton obtusifolius, P. mucronatus; Acorus Calamus; Paris quadrifolia; Calamagrostis Epigeios; Lolium temulentum; Aspidium angulare; Chara contraria.

VI. Alne.—The Alne, rises near Tanworth on the west border of Warwickshire, the high land there forming in part the watershed of the Avon and Tame. Its course is through Henley-in-Arden, near here it is joined by an important tributary draining the country between Henley, Lapworth, and Rowington. This sub-district is somewhat hilly, the Alne Hills being the highest elevations. It includes Tanworth, Henley-in-Arden, Bearley, Alne, Wilmcote, Claverdon, Hatton, Rowington. The Lias soils prevail in southern part of the district. The flora is about 745 flowering plants and ferns, the following being the more rare—

Clematis vitalba; Ranunculus Drouetii; Helianthemum vulgare; Viola hirta; Geranium pratense, G. pusillum; Melilotus officinalis; Lotus tenuis; *Lathyrus Aphaca, L. Nissolia; Spiræa Filipendula; Agrimonia odorata; Rubus thyrsoideus; Rosa rubiginosa; Sison Amomum; Caucalis daucoides; Galium tricorne; Valeriana Mikani; Scabiosa columbaria; Carduus acaulis; Centauria Scabiosa; Anthemis nobilis; Arctium majus; Picris hieracioides; Helminthia echioides; Gentiana amarella; Linaria spuria, *L. repens; Thymus Chamædrys; Ophrys apifera; Juncus obtusiflorus; Avena pratensis; Bromus erectus; B. secalinus; Chara longibracteata.

VII. Arrow.—The Arrow enters the county near Redditch, and takes its course through a narrow hilly valley to its confluence with the Avon at Salford Priors, passing on its way Studley, Alcester, Arrow, Wixford, and Broome. This sub-district is well wooded; the soils are mostly Keuper marls and sand, with Lias soils prevailing about Wixford. The flora has not been fully worked out, but the record is now about 706 flowering plants and ferns; among the more noteworthy are:—

Ranunculus circinatus; Berberis vulgaris; Sinapis nigra; Silene noctiflora; Euonymus Europæus; Trifolium striatum; Rosa spinossisma; Pyrus communis; *Sedum Telephium; Ribes nigrum; Bupleurum rotundifolium; Torilis infesta; Adoxa Moschatellina; Viburnum Lantana; Carduus crispus, C. Eriophorus; Campanula glomerata, C. Trachelium; Specularia hybrida; Chlora perfoliata; *Hyoscyamus niger; Linaria Elatine; Calamintha menthifolia; *Marrubium vulgare; Galeopsis Ladanum, G. versicolor; Centunculus minimus; Chenopodium polyspermum, C. hybridum; Polygonum Bistorta; Daphne Laureola; Carpinus Betulus; Salix triandra; Orchis pyramidalis; Spiranthes autumnalis; *Epipactis palustris; Chephalanthera ensifolia; Iris fœtidissima; *Allium oleraceum; Juncus Gerardi; Carex divulsa, *C. distans; Kœhleria cristata; Schlerochloa rigida; Brachipodium pinnatum.

WORCESTER.

The Worcestershire portion of the district extends from Oldbury and Yardley in the north, to Abbot’s Morton on the south. It is watered by the Cole and Rea, tributaries to the Tame, by the Stour and Salwarp, tributaries to the Severn, by the Severn itself, and by the Arrow and minor streams tributaries to the Avon. A range of hills about eight miles long runs across the country from north-west to south-east, and articulates with the central water parting at Bromsgrove Lickey. It includes Clent, Walton and Romsley Hills, Frankley Beeches, the Upper and the Lower Lickey, and rises in Walton Hill, to a maximum height of 1036 feet above the sea. The Worcestershire portion of the district has been divided into the following eight sub-districts, distinguished by the Roman numerals I. to VIII. It has not been found convenient in every case to adopt water partings as sub-divisional boundaries.

I. Rea. II. Clent and Lickey. III. Stour. IV. East Severn. V. West Severn. VI. Salwarp. VII. Arrow. VIII. Avon.

I. Rea.—The north-east angle of the county, drained by the Rea and Cole. Surface strata, red marl, occasionally covered by modern drift.

The flora of this sub-district has, unhappily, mainly an historical interest. Moseley Wake Green and Bog, drained and enclosed in or about 1840, and now partly built upon, formerly produced the following rarities:—

Viola palustris; Drosera rotundifolia; Dianthus deltoides; Alsine tenuifolia; Radiola millegrana; Hypericum elodes; Comarum palustre; Parnassia palustris; Helosciadium inundatum; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Carduus pratensis; Vaccinium Oxycoccus; Menyanthes trifoliata; Pedicularis palustris; Scutellaria minor; Anagallis tenella; Centunculus minimus; Narthecium ossifragum; Rhyncospora alba; Eriophorum vaginatum; Triodia decumbens; Molinia cærulea; Nephrodium Oreopteris; Osmunda regalis; Lycopodium Selago; Equisetum hyemale.

Most of the above plants are certainly, and all probably, extinct. The same may be said of—

Thalictrum flavum; Coronopus Ruellii; Lythrum Salicaria; Ribes alpinum; Œnanthe fistulosa; Veronica Anagallis; Triglochin palustre; Butomus umbellatus; recorded from other parts of this sub-district.

The rarer plants now existing within it are:—

Ranunculus pseudo-fluitans; Chelidonium majus; Cardamine amara; Nasturtium amphibium; Nasturtium palustre; Epilobium roseum; Sium augustifolium; Adoxa moschatellina; Galium uliginosum; Hieraceum umbellatum; Campanula latifolia; Limosella aquatica; Stachys palustris; Rumex Hydrolapathum; Narcissus pseudo-narcissus; Lemna trisulca; Sagittaria sagittifolia; Scirpus setaceus; Carex vesicaria, C. pseudo-Cyperus; Alopecurus fulvus; Triticum caninum.

II. Clent and Lickey.—The Clent and Lickey Hills, with the head waters of the Rea and Arrow, and upper valley of the Stour to Stourbridge. Surface strata; Water stones, Bunter soft red sandstone and Pebble bed, Permian breccia, Permian clays and sandstones, Coal measures, Silurian and Cambrian rocks of the lower Lickey. This sub-district is extensively wooded, especially in the basin of the upper Stour above Halesowen.

The rarer plants are—

Ranunculus circinatus, R. auricomus, R. parviflorus, R. arvensis; Corydalis claviculata; Lepidium Smithii; Cardamine amara, C. impatiens; Barbarea stricta; Nasturtium amphibium; Erysimum cheiranthoides; Cheiranthus Cheiri; Reseda luteola; Viola palustris; Polygala depressa; Moenchia erecta; Spergularia rubra; Hypericum Androsæmun, H. humifusum; Geranium sylvaticum, G. lucidum; Rhamnus Frangula; Ulex Gallii; Genista tinctoria; Ononis arvensis. O. campestris; Melilotus arvensis; Trifolium medium, T. hybridum; Ornithopus perpusillus; Orobus tuberosus; Prunus Avium; Geum rivale, G. intermedium; Rubus macrophyllus, R. Sprengelii, R. hystrix, R. rudis, R. Kœhleri, R. fusco-ater, R. rotundifolius, R. tenuiarmatus, R. diversifolius; Rosa mollissima, R. tomentosa, R. subglobosa, R. Watsoni; Agrimonia Eupatoria, A. odorata; Alchemilla vulgaris; Sanguisorba officinalis; Poterium muricatum; Pyrus Aucuparia; Epilobium angustifolium, E. obscurum; Callitriche stagnalis; Peplis Portula; Ribes rubrum, R. nigrum; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Adoxa moschatellina; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Sanicula Europæa; Pimpinella magna; Silaus pratensis; Pastinaca sativa; Torilis infesta; Viscum album; Sambucus nigra; Viburnum Opulus; Asperula odorata; Valerianella dentata; Dipsacus pilosus; Inula Conyza, I. dysenterica; Matricaria Parthenium; M. Chamomilla; Doronicum Pardalianches; Senecio erucifolius; Carlina vulgaris; Serratula tinctoria; Centaurea Scabiosa; Lactuca muralis; Hieracium murorum; Campanula latifolia; Erica tetralix; Vaccinium Myrtillus; Erythræa Centaurium; Chlora perfoliata; Convolvulus sepium; Cuscuta Trifolii; Orobanche major; Lathræa squamaria; Linaria Cymbalaria, L. repens; Pedicularis sylvatica; Veronica montana, V. Buxbaumii; Calamintha Clinopodium; Scutellaria galericulata; Lamium Galeobdolon; Galeopsis versicolor; Stachys Betonica; Myosotis sylvatica; Cynoglossum officinale; Primula caulescens; Lysimachia vulgaris, L. Nummularia; Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus, C. olidum; Polygonum Bistorta; Euphorbia amygdaloides; Humulus Lupulus; Salix pentandra, S. aurita; Paris quadrifolia; Tamus communis; Orchis Morio; Gymnadenia conopsea; Neottia nidus-avis; Habenaria bifolia; Epipactis media; Narcissus pseudo-narcissus; Sagittaria sagittifolia; Butomus umbellatus; Allium ursinum; Colchicum autumnale; Juncus squarrosus; Luzula pilosa; Potamogeton rufescens, P. perfoliatus, P. crispus, P. pectinatus; Carex pulicaris, C. remota, C. pallescens. C. strigosa, C. pendula, C. pilulifera, C. fulva, C. lepidocarpa, C. sylvatica, C. pseudo-Cyperus, C. binervis; Triodia decumbens; Molinia cærulea; Festuca gigantea; Bromus erectus; Nardus stricta; Equisetum maximum, E. sylvaticum, E. hyemale; Nephrodium Oreopteris, N. spinulosum; Aspidium aculeatum, A. angulare: Asplenium Trichomanes; Blechnum boreale; Botrychium Lunaria; Ophioglossum vulgatum; Lycopodium clavatum.

Diplotaxis muralis; Buplerum rotundifolium; Hyoscyamus niger; Linaria Elatine; Borago orientalis have occurred as casuals.

Narthecium ossifragum and Drosera rotundifolia formerly grew at the Lower Lickey. The former was destroyed by drainage about 1854, the latter has been recently extirpated by collectors. Ceterach officinarum, which grew in great abundance on the garden wall at the Leasows from 1850 to 1884, was destroyed soon after the latter date.

III. Stour.—Country from the foot of the Clent Hills to the east bank of the Stour, near Kidderminster. Surface strata—Waterstones, soft red Bunter, Pebble bed. This sub-district is distinguished by the steep scarps of the waterstones, the sandy soils of the soft red sandstone, and the numerous pools on the brooks which flow from the Clent Hills into the river Stour. The rarer plants are—

Rananculus circinatus, R. fluitans, R. Lenormandi; Aquilegia vulgaris; Chelidonium majus; Nasturtium palustre; Cardamine amara; Barbarea præcox; Thlaspi arvense; Teesdalia nudicaulis; Viola palustris; Sagina ciliata; Arenaria leptoclados; Cerastium aquaticum, C. semidecandrum; Spergularia rubra; Malva moschata; Hypericum dubium, H. humifusum; Geranium columbinum; Erodium cicutarium; Trifolium arvense, T. filiforme; Ornithopus perpusillus; Potentilla argentea; Comarum palustre; Rubus suberectus, R. affinis, R. umbrosus, R. rhamnifolius, R. Lindleianus, R. diversifolius, R. ternuiarmatus; R. spinosissima, R. mollissima; Lythrum Salicaria; Epilobium angustifolium. E. obscurum; Myriophyllum spicatum; Ceratophyllum aquaticum; Bryonia dioica; Sedum Telephium, S. album; Ribes rubrum, R. nigrum; Saxifraga granulata; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Parnassia palustris; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Sium angustifolium; Conium maculatum; Galium uliginosum; Valerianella olitoria; Gnaphalium sylvaticum; Anthemis arvensis; Tanacetum vulgare; Bidens tripartita, B. cernua; Carduus nutans; Leontodon hirtus; Hieracium murorum, H. umbellatum; Jasione montana; Campanula patula; Menyanthes trifoliata; Echium vulgare; Myosotis versicolor; Solanum nigrum; Verbascum Thapsus, V. nigrum, V. virgatum; Veronica Anagallis, V. polita; Pedicularis palustris; Verbena officinalis; Salvia verbenaca; Mentha sylvestris; M. piperta; Calamintha menthifolia, C. Acinos; Nepeta Cataria; Rumex Hydrolapathum, R. pratensis; Polygonum Bistorta, P. pseudo-dumetorum; Anacharis Alsinastrum; Orchis mascula, O. latifolia, O. incarnata; Alisma Plantago; Polygonatum multiflorum; Luzula sylvatica, L. pilosa; Typha augustifolia; Acorus Calamus; Sparganium ramosum, S. simplex; Potamogeton zosterifolius, P. flabellatus; P. lucens; Zanichellia palustris; Scirpus sylvaticus; Carex axillaris, C. disticha, C. muricata, C. paniculata, C. Boeninghauseniana, C. pilulifera, C. pseudo-Cyperus, C. ampullacea, C. paludosa; Nardus stricta; Aira caryophyllea, A. præcox; Avena pubescens; Festuca sciuroides, F. Myurus; Bromus erectus; Triticum caninum; Equisetum maximum; Asplenium Trichomanes; Ceterach officinarum.

Camelina sativa, Silene anglica, Anthoxanthum Puelii, have been found as field casuals. Mimulus luteus is established in the brooks at Churchill. Medicago maculata, Xanthium spinosum, Polypogon monspeliensis were growing in 1875 on wool waste at Hoo Mill.

Sium latifolium, which grew in Blakedown Pools, in Purton’s time, has been long extinct in that locality. Osmunda regalis, which grew in this sub-district in 1852-3, has disappeared. Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum and Scolpendrium vulgare have been all but exterminated.

Elatine hexandra and Hydropiper, reported by the late Mr. Alexander Irvine in a “Mill Pond near Churchill station,” in 1857, have not been seen by any other botanist.

IV. East Severn.—Country from the west bank of the Stour to the east bank of the Severn near Bewdley and Stourport, including Hartlebury Common east of Severn, below the junction of the Stour at Stourport. Surface strata: Waterstones, Bunter sandstone and Pebble bed, Permian breccia, Coal measures, Old red sandstone; covered at Hartlebury Common and elsewhere with modern drift. The sand and bog plants of Hartlebury Common are the most interesting features of the flora of this sub-district. It contains—

Ranunculus fluitans; Teesdalia nudicaulis; Brassica Cheiranthus; Viola canina; Drosera rotundifolia; Cerastium arvense; Spergularia rubra; Radiola millegrana; Erodium maritimum; Geranium pratense, G. lucidum, G. pyrenaicum; Trifolium striatum, T. arvense; Ornithopus perpusillus; Vicia lathyroides; Potentilla argentea; Comarum palustre; Rubus suberectus, R. fusco-ater; Rosa spinosissima; Pyrus torminalis; Lythrum Salicaria; Sedum dasyphyllum; Cotyledon Umbilicus; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Helosciadium inundatum; Œnanthe crocata; Chærophyllum Anthriscus; Lonicera Caprifolium, L. Xylosteum; Valerianella carinata; Carduus nutans; Hypochæris glabra; Inula Conyza; Erigeron acris; Campanula Trachelium; Erica tetralix; Monotropa hypopitys; Menyanthes trifoliata; Myosotis collina; Verbascum Lychnitis, V. virgatum; Nepeta Cataria; Veronica scutellata: Salvia verbenaca; Calamintha menthifolia, C. Acinos; Scutellaria minor; Marrubium vulgare; Rumex maritimus; Potamogeton polygonifolius, P. obtusifolius; Juncus squarrosus; Rhyncospora alba; Eriophorum augustifolium; Scirpus fluitans; Carex curta, C. pilulifera, C. divulsa; Agrostis canina; Triodia decumbens; Nardus stricta; Equisetum sylvaticum; Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum; Botrychium Lunaria; Lycopodium clavatum, L. inundatum.

Melilotus alba, Carum Carui, Arnoseris pusilla, Crepis Nicænsis, Linaria minor have been found as casuals near the Railway Viaduct over the Stour, south of Kidderminster, and Centaurea solstitialis at Hartlebury; Lycopodium complanatum was gathered on Hartlebury Common in 1836, but has not been seen since.

V. West Severn.—Country west of the Severn, from Wyre Forest on the north, to Shrawley Wood on the south. Surface strata: Waterstones, soft red Bunter, Permian breccia, Coal measures, Old red sandstone. This sub-district extends somewhat beyond the twenty miles radius. It is chiefly remarkable for the large area of woodland known as Wyre Forest, which produces a number of rarities not found elsewhere within the County. Part of the forest is in Salop. The following list includes plants from both counties:—

Thalictrum flavum; Ranunculus fluitans; Aquilegia vulgaris; Cardamine impatiens; Nasturtium sylvestre; Polygala vulgaris; Saponaria officinalis; Hypericum montanum; Tilia parvifolia, T. grandifolia; Geranium sylvaticum, G. sanguineum; Rhamnus catharticus, R. Frangula; Vicia sylvatica; Spiræa salicifolia; Pyrus torminalis; Rubus saxatilis, R. villicaulis, R. hirtus, R. pyramidalis, R. Guntheri; Rosa mollissima, R. micrantha; Sedium Telephium; Galium erectum; Hieracium murorum; Campanula latifolia, C. Trachelium; Pyrola media, P. minor; Gentiana campestris; Mentha Pulegium; Pedicularis palustris; Melampyrum pratense; Scutellaria minor; Myosotis repens; Lithospermum officinale; Centunculus minimus; Juniperus communis; Convallaria majalis; Orchis latifolia; Gymnadenia conopsea; Habenaria chlorantha, H. viridis; Epipactis latifolia, E. palustris; Cephalanthera ensifolia; Neottia nidus-avis; Spiranthes autumnalis; Scirpus pauciflorus, S. setaceus; Eriophorum latifolium; Carex pulicaris, C. divulsa, C. fulva, C. montana, C. strigosa; Melica nutans; Nephrodium Oreopteris; Equisetum maximum, E. hyemale.

A single tree of Pyrus domestica, once a celebrity of Wyre Forest, and reputed the only wild one in Britain, was destroyed by fire in 1862. Spiranthes æstioalis has once been gathered in the great bog in the Forest; Coronilla varia occurs as a casual on the right bank of the Severn, about a mile above Bewdley.

VI. Arrow.—Country between Barnt Green and Redditch, surrounding the village of Alvechurch. With the exception of a small patch of Waterstone, this sub-district is entirely on the Red marl. Several large reservoirs belonging to the Worcester canal are situated within it.

The following are its characteristic plants—

Ranunculus Drouetii; Lepidum ruderale; Viola palustris; Drosera rotundifolia; Lotus tenuis; Rosa micrantha, R. sub-cristata, R. Hailstonii, R. Borreri, R. bibracteata; Rubus adornatus, R. thyrsoideus, R. pilosus; Lathyrus Nissolia; Pyrus torminalis; Epilobium angustifolium; Myriophyllum spicatum; Valerianella dentata; Anthemis arvensis; Artemisia Absinthium; Serratula tinctoria; Carduus crispus; Campanula patula; Myosotis repens; Pedicularis palustris; Limosella aquatica; Veronica Anagallis, V. scutellata; Primula caulescens; Anagallis tenella; Euphorbia amygdaloides; Rumex Hydrolapathum; Triglochin palustre; Butomus umbellatus; Sagittaria sagittifolia; Acorus Calamus; Potamogeton polygonfolius; Ophrys apifera; Juncus squarrosus; Eleocharis acicularis; Scirpus setaceus; Calamagrostis Epigejos; Nardus stricta; Equisetum sylvaticum; Ophioglossum vulgatum; Chara flexilis.

VII. Salwarp.—Country from the S.W. foot of the Lickey Hills, to the Salwarp below Droitwich. Surface strata: Red Marl, Waterstones. The most noticeable features are the extensive tract of woodland known as the Randans, and the Salt Works of Stoke and Droitwich. The latter have rendered the canals and streams in the vicinity more or less saline.

The characteristic plants are—

Geranium lucidum, G. Pyrenaicum; Rhamnus catharticus; Dipsacus sylvestris; Sison Amomum; Scandix Pecten-Veneris; Picris hieracioides; Senecio erucifolius; Carduus crispus; Inula Conyza; Vaccinium Myrtillus; Melampyrum pratense; Plantago media; Scirpus Tabernæmontani; Calamagrostis Epigejos; Aspidium angulare; Nephrodium spinulosum; Lycopodium clavatum.

Polypodium Dryopteris, and Cystopteris fragilis, which grew at Catshill up to 1861, are believed to be extinct. The plants of the saline waters of Droitwich deserve separate mention. They are—

Lepidum ruderale, L. latifolium; Spergularia salina: Apium graveolens; Samolus Valerandi; Glaux maritima; Juncus Gerardi; Sclerochloa distans.

VIII. Avon.—The country about Feckenham on the streams tributary to the Avon, is situated partly on the Lias, and partly on the Red Marl. It is the only one of the eight sub-districts in which the Lias occurs. The following plants are principally characteristic of the calcareous soil of the Lias—

Trifolium fragiferum; Lotus tenuis; Melilotus officinalis; Astragalus glycyphyllus; Lathyrus Nissolia; Poterium muricatum; Sison Amomum; Conium maculatum; Pastinaca sativa; Torilis nodosa; Picris hieracioides; Helminthia echioides; Campanula latifolia; Lithospermum arvense; Daphne Laureola; Ophrys apifera.

A large tract of bog land known as Feckenham Moor existed in this sub-district in the time of Purton, and produced the following plants, recorded in his “Midland Flora”—

Parnassia palustris; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Carduus pratensis; Pinguicula vulgaris; Triglochin palustre; Alisma ranunculoides; Schœnus nigricans; Cladium Mariscus.

The moor was drained many years ago, and its plants are all extinct.

STAFFORD.

The Staffordshire portion of the district extends from Upper Arley, on the west to Penkridge and Rugeley on the north, and to Tamworth on the east. The parish of Dudley, which, although in Worcester is entirely surrounded by Stafford, will be treated as part of the latter county. The principal elevations are the Silurian Hills of Dudley Castle, 550 feet, and of the Wren’s Nest, 500 feet above the sea, situated on the central water parting. West of these are Kinver Edge, 550 feet, and on the east Barr Beacon, 654 feet. It is watered on the west by the Severn, on the north and east by the Trent and Tame, and other tributary streams. It produces on the whole an interesting flora, notwithstanding the fact that the South Staffordshire Coalfield with the collieries and iron works, so destructive to vegetation, is included within its limits. The sub-districts adopted are: I. Severn, II. Trent, III. Tame.

I. Severn.—This sub-district comprises Upper Arley, Kinver, Enville, Dudley and Sedgley, with much of the country W. and N.W., of Wolverhampton. The Coal measures extend over a considerable area, and Silurian limestones and shales occur about Sedgley and Dudley.

The more interesting plants are:—

Ranunculus circinatus, R. fluitans, R. parviflorus; Berberis vulgaris; Sinapis nigra; Cardamine amara, C. impatiens; Teesdalia nudicaulis; Viola palustris; Saponaria officinalis; Silene Anglica; Cerastium arvense; Sagina ciliata; Hypericum Androsæmum, H. dubium, H. humifusum; Geranium pyrenaicum, G. columbinum; Erodium moschatum, E. maritimum; Euonymus Europæus; Rhamnus catharticus; R. Frangula; Genista tinctoria; Ulex Gallii; Melilotus officinalis; Ornithopus perpusillus; Vicia sylvatica, V. lathyroides; Prunus insititia, P. Padus; Sanguisorba officinalis; Potentilla argentea; Comarum palustre; Pyrus Malus, var. mitis; Saxifraga granulata; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Helosciadium inundatum; Œnanthe fistulosa, Œ. crocata; Torilis nodosa; Chærophyllum Anthriscus; Viscum album; Viburnum Opulus; Carduus nutans, C. eriophorus, C. pratensis; Carlina vulgaris; Gnaphalium sylvaticum; Doronicum Pardalianches; Inula Conyza; Solidago virga-aurea; Hypochæris glabra; Leontodon hirtus; Picris hieracioides; Helminthia echioides; Hieracium umbellatum; Campanula Rapunculus, C. patula; Monotropa hypopitys; Gentiana Amarella; Chlora perfoliata; Atropa Belladonna; Verbascum Thapsus, V. Lychnitis, V. Thapso-lychnitis; Linaria Elatine; Limosella aquatica; Mimulus luteus; Nepeta Cataria; Scutellaria minor; Galeopsis Ladanum; Echium vulgare; Lithospermum officinale; Myosotis sylvatica; Cynoglossum officinale; Parietaria officinalis; Ulmus montana; Chenopodium polyspermum; Salix decipiens, S. cærulea, S. vitellina, S. undulata, S. purpurea, S. Woolgariana, S. acuminata, S. laurina; Sparganium neglectum; Orchis mascula, O. Morio, O. latifolia; Epipactis latifotia; Colchicum officinale; Carex pulicaris, C. pallescens, C. strigosa, C. pendula; Poa nemoralis; Nephrodium Thelypteris; Botrychium Lunaria; Lycopodium clavatum.

II. Trent.—Comprises much of the country lying N. and N.E. of Wolverhampton, including Codsall, Penkridge, Cannock Chase, Rugeley, Abbotts Bromley and Alrewas. Much of this sub-district has a sub-Alpine character in its physical features and flora, and is beautifully undulated throughout. The rocks are mainly Triassic, but the coal measures prevail over a considerable area. The more rare plants are:—

Thalictrum flavum; Ranunculus circinatus, R. trichophyllus, R. Drouetii, R. Baudotii v. confusus, R. Lenormandi, R. flamula var. pseudo-reptans, R. Lingua, R. hirsutus, R. parviflorus; Caltha Guerangerii; Actæa spicata; Papaver Rhæas v. strigosum; Chelidonium majus; Thlaspi arvense; Erysimum cheiranthoides; Arabis perfoliata; Nasturtium amphibium; Viola palustris, V. Reichenbachiana; Drosera rotundifolia; Polygala depressa; Tilia parvifolia; Montia fontana; Prunus Padus; Potentilla argentea; Rubus rhamnifolius, R. villicaulis, R. Schlechtendalii, R. Sprengelii, R. Bloxamii, R. rosaceus, R. infestus, R. Guntheri, R. Bellardii; Rosa scabriuscula, R. tomentella; Epilobium roseum; Hippuris vulgaris; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Hydrocotyle vulgaris; Œnanthe fistulosa, Œ. Phellandrium; Bidens cernua, B. tripartita; Hieracium maculatum; Wahlenbergia hederacea; Vaccinium Oxycoccus, V. Vitis-Idæa, V. Myrtillus; Menyanthes trifoliata; Mentha piperita; Lamium Galeobdolon; Myosotis palustris; Pinguicula vulgaris, Lysimachia Nummularia; Anagallis tenella; Polygonum Bistorta; Rumex maritimus; Empetrum nigrum; Salix pentandra, S. triandra, S. Forbyana, S. Smithiana, S. holosericea, S. hyppophaefolia; Typha angustifolia; Potamogeton lucens; Fritillaria Meleagris; Narthecium ossifragum; Scirpus lacustris, S. sylvaticus; Eriophorum angustifolium, E. vaginatum; Carex dioica, C. curta, C. disticha, C. muricata, C. pilulifera, C. binervis, C. pseudo-Cyperus, C. vesicaria, C. ampullacea; Calamogrostis Epegeios; Milium effusum; Molinia cærulea; Avena pubescens, A. fatua; Triticum caninum; Nardus stricta; Osmunda regalis.

III. Tame.—This sub-district, includes Walsall, Lichfield, Shenstone, Barr and Handsworth. The surface rocks are Trias, Permian and Coal measures, and the limestones of Walsall, Rushall, and Hay Head. The greatest elevation is Barr Beacon. Both the source and the mouth of the Tame are within the limits of this sub-district. The principal plants are:—

Thalictrum flavum; Arabis perfoliata; Cardamine amara, C. impatiens; Nasturtium sylvestre; Teesdalia nudicaulis; Reseda Luteola; Silene noctiflora; Malva moschata, M. rotundifolia; Erodium cicutarium; Genista Anglica; Lathyrus Nissolia; Orobus tuberosus; Prunus insititia, P. Padus; Geum rivale; Rosa subglobosa, R. micrantha, R. collina; Rubus suberectus, R. rharmnifolius; Pyrus Aria; Sedum Telephium; Saxifraga granulata; Chrysosplenium alternifolium; Parnassia palustris; Helosciadium repens; Myrrhis odorata; Apium graveolens; Œnanthe crocata; Dipsacus pilosus; Valerianella dentata; Galium Witheringii; Carduus nutans, C. pratensis; Anthemis nobilis; Erigeron acris; Campanula Trachelium, C. latifolia, C. patula; Solanum nigrum; Linaria minor; Veronica Buxbaumii, V. montana, V. scutellata, V. Anagallis; Limosella aquatica; Pinguicula vulgaris; Utricularia vulgaris; Lysimachia vulgaris; Centunculus minimus; Parietaria officinalis; Ulmus montana; Salix pentandra; Acorus Calamus; Epipactis palustris; Convallaria majalis; Typha angustifolia; Lemna gibba; Narthecium ossifragum; Colchicum autumnale; Scirpus sylvaticus, S. cæspitosus; Carex pallescens, C. pseudo-Cyperus; Calamagrostis Epegejos, C. lanceolatus; Milium effusum; Avena pubescens; Triticum caninum; Asplenium Ruta-muraria; Aspidium lobatum; Osmunda regalis.

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Chapter II.
The Mosses, Hepatics, and Lichens.

BY J. E. BAGNALL, A.L.S.

In describing the rarer Mosses, Hepatics and Lichens, to be found within the district, the materials at command are not sufficient to admit of so minute an analysis of distribution as that given for the flowering plants in the preceding pages. For the mosses four sub-districts will be adopted: I. Warwick, Tame; II. Warwick, Avon; III. Worcester; IV. Stafford. For the Hepatics and Lichens, the enumeration will be restricted to Warwick only; information for Worcester and Stafford not being within reach. The nomenclature of the Mosses and Hepatics is that of the “London Catalogue of British Mosses and Hepatics,” 2nd Edit., 1881. The nomenclature of the Lichens is that of “The Lichen Flora,” of the Revd. W. A. Leighton, 1871.

MOSSES.

The Moss Flora of the whole district under review, so far as records are available, is about 272 species and varieties; that of Warwickshire alone being about 261. Its comparative poverty may be attributed, partly to the absence of great elevations, partly to the prevalence of smoke over large portions of the district, and partly to the draining of bogs and marshes, and reclamation of heath lands.

I. Warwick, Tame.—This sub-district includes that portion of the country watered by the Tame and its affluents, the Cole, Blythe, Bourne, and Anker. The following are the more noticeable mosses.

Sphagnum fimbriatum, S. squarrosum, S. rubellum, S. papillosum, S. cymbifolium, var. squarrosulum; Systegium crispum; *Dicranum spurium, D. fuscescens, D. majus; Campylopus flexuosus; Archidium phascoides; Pleuridium alternifolium; Leucobryum glaucum; Sphærangium muticum; Pottia minutula; Trichostomum tophaceum; Tortula aloides, T. marginata, T. rigidula, T. spadicea, T. insulana, T. tortuosa, T. subulata, T. papillosa; Encalypta streptocarpa; Racomitrium canescens; Zygodon viridissimus; Ulota intermedia; Ephemerum serratum; Funaria fasciculare; Bryum pallescens, B. roseum; Mnium rostratum, M. stellare, M. subglobosum; Polytrichum gracile; Fissidens adiantoides, F. exilis; Leucodon sciuroides; Amblyodon dealbatus; Philonotis fontana; Homalia trichomanoides; *Hedwigia ciliata; Brachythecium albicans; Eurhynchium speciosum, E. Teesdalii; Plagiothecium sylvaticum, P. elegans, P. latebricola; Amblestegium fluviatile; Hypnum commutatum, H. exannulatum; H. Cossoni, H. vernicosum, H. falcatum, H. giganteum, H. stramineum, H. revolvens.

II. Warwick, Avon.—This sub-district includes that portion of Avon within the area, and its affluents, the Sow, Alne, and Arrow. The following are the more rare mosses:—

Sphagnum auriculatum, S. subsecundum; Gymnostomum tenue; Dicranum montanum; D. scoparium; Campylopus pyriformis; Pottia intermedia, P. cavifolia, var. incana; Tortula rigida, T. ambigua, T. atro-virens, T. Brebissoni, T. lævipila, T. intermedia, T. papillosa; Grimmia crinita; Orthotrichum saxatile, O. stramineum, O. tenellum, O. leiocarpum, O. Lyelii, O. rivulare; Leptobryum pyriforme; Bryum pendulum, B. murale; Mnium undulatum; Polytrichum formosum; Fissidens Lylei, F. incurvus, F. pusillus, F. inconstans, F. tamarindifolius; Cryphæa heteromalla; Anomodon viticulosum; Thamnium alopecurum; Climacium dendroides; Camptothecium lutescens; Scleropodium cæspitosum, S. illecebrum; Brachythecium rivulare; Eurhynchium pumilum; Rhynchostegium tenellum; Hypnum Lindbergii, H. stellatum, H. chrysophyllum, H. cordifolium, H. splendens, H. brevirostre, H. loreum, H. palustre.

III. Worcester.—The moss flora of this sub-district has not been published; but the moss herbaria of Mr. Mathews and the writer afford records of about 127 species. Many of these have already been recorded for Warwick, and are therefore omitted here. The following, which are mainly from the Stour sub-district, are the more noteworthy:—

Sphagnum auriculatum; S. cuspidatum, S. intermedium; Dicranum scoparium; Leucobryum glaucum; Pleuridium nitidum; Pottia Wilsoni, P. intermedia; Tortula cuneifolia, T. convoluta; Encalypta vulgaris, E. streptocarpa; Racomitrium aciculare, R. lanuginosum, R. fasiculare; Ptychomitrium polyphyllum; Ulota intermedia; Orthotrichum Lyellii; Ephemerum serratum; Physcomitrella patens; Amblyodon dealbatus; Philonotis fontana; Leptobryum pyriforme; Bryum pendulum, B. roseum; Mnium stellare; Aulacomnium palustre; Fissidens exilis, F. adiantoides; Fontinalis antipyretica; Neckera crispa; Homalia trichomanoides; Pterygophyllum lucens; Climacium dendroides; Brachythecium populeum; Rhynchostegium murale; Hypnum commutatum, H. palustre, H. chrysophyllum; *H. scorpioides.

IV. Stafford.—The record given in Garner’s Natural History of Staffordshire, of the mosses of that county, refers to localities which are all outside the area. Hence it is impossible to do more than mention the rarer species collected by myself, mostly within a ten mile radius of Birmingham, and a few additional records supplied by Dr. Fraser. They are as follows:—

Dicranella cerviculata, D. rufescens, D. crispa; Dicranum Scoparium, D. palustre, D. majus; Pleuridium nitidum; Tortula Hornschuchiana, T. ambigua, T. aloides; Didymodon rubellus; Pottia lanceolata, P. intermedia, P. minutula; Ephemerum serratum; Encalypta streptocarpa; Philonotis fontana; Bartramia pomiformis; Webera carnea, W. annotina; Bryum pendulum, B. atro-purpureum, B. cuspidatum; Polytrichum strictum; Fissidens adiantoides; Tetraphis pellucida; Entosthodon fasciculare; Brachythecium populeum, B. albicans; Eurhynchium murale, E. Teesdalii; Plagiothecium elegans, P. undulatum; Hypnum intermedium, H. chrysophyllum, H. vernicosum, H. giganteum.

HEPATICÆ.

The Hepaticæ and Lichens are poorly represented, and as no available record of these plants occurs, only those of the Warwickshire portion of the district will be given.

Of the Hepaticæ only about 41 species have as yet been found, the more noteworthy being:—

Fossombronia pusilla; Madotheca platyphylla; Radula complanata; Scapania nemorosa, S. irrigua; Plagiochila nemorosa; Aplozia crenulata, A. sphærocarpa; Gymnocolea inflata; Jungermannia ventricosa; Cephalozia byssacea, C. Starkii, *C. curvifolia, C. connivens; Trichocolea tomentella; Metzgeria furcata; Aneura multifida, A. sinuata, A. pinguis; Lunularia cruciata; Conocephalus conicus; Anthoceros punctatus, A. lævis; Riccia glauca; Ricciella fluitans.

LICHENS.

So far as experience serves the Lichen flora of the district appears to be very limited. From Worcestershire I have seen no records except that probably exhaustive one by Mr. Edwin Lees in his “Botany and Geology of Malvern,” where we find about 240 species recorded for the Malvern district, but outside the area under notice here. For Staffordshire, Garner records about 51 species, few of which are localised, and those few are outside the area.

In Purton’s “Midland Flora,” a fair record is given of these plants for the Midland district, several of the species there recorded are, however, now either assigned to other orders as algæ or fungi, or are considered to be imperfect states of other lichens. So far as it is possible to judge from Purton’s records, and the observations of the present writer, the Lichen flora of that part of Warwickshire within the area here adopted comprises about 100 species, of which the following are some of the more noticeable:—

Collema nigrescens; Calcium trichiale, C. hyperellum, C. trachelinum; Trachylia tympanella; Cladonia alcicornis, C. furcata, C. rangifera, C. uncialis; Stereocaulon paschale; Usnea hirta; Alectoria jubata; Evernia furfuracca: Ramulina fraxinea, R. fastigiata; Cetraria aculeata; Peltigera rufescens, P. polydactyle; Sticta pulmonacea; Parmelia olivacea, P. caperata, P. lanata, P. perlata; Physcia ciliaris, P. pulverulenta, P. stellaris; Pannaria pezizoides, P. nigra; Lecanora candelaria, L. pruinosa, L. parella, L. atra, L. sulphurea, L. ferruginea; Urceolaria scruposa; Pertusaria communis; Phylictis agelæa; Lecidea æruginosa, L. quernea, L. parasema, L. fusco-ater; Graphis scripta, G. serpentina; Opegrapha atra, O. notha; Arthonia astroidea, A. Swartziana; Verrucaria gemmata, V. epidermidis, V. nitida.

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Chapter III.
The Algæ.

BY A. W. WILLS.

The great class of Algæ includes the sea-weeds, together with a large number of plants, mostly of microscopic size and of simple cellular structure, which abound wherever fresh water is found, whether in the form of running streams or stagnant pools, or even as covering damp surfaces of ground.

A broad subdivision of the Algæ into three groups has been generally accepted by botanists, these being the Rhodosporeæ (red-spored), Melanosporeæ (dark-spored), and Chlorosporeæ (green-spored). The marine genera are distributed over all three of these groups; the freshwater ones belong almost exclusively to the last. The classification of the freshwater Chlorosperms is by no means satisfactory, but it is impossible to discuss it within the limits of this article.

It is to be regretted that scarcely any of the botanists of Birmingham have made the Algæ their special study; hence the information at our disposal is insufficient to enable us to group the recorded species with reference to their occurrence in the several adjacent counties. This is, however, the less important because the distribution of this class of plants is not dependent, to the same extent as that of Phænogams, either on climate or soil, though it is probably not altogether independent of either. Their abundance, therefore, is in pretty direct proportion to that of such spaces of water as afford favourable conditions for their growth.

Hence, as the neighbourhood of Birmingham is mostly characterised by light and porous soils, the habitats in which Algæ are to be found are somewhat restricted. There are, however, two conspicuous exceptions. The tract of land about seven miles from Birmingham, known as Sutton Park, embraces a singular variety of scenery and presents conditions highly favourable to algoid growth in the shape of clear springs and streams, large sheets of water, and a considerable area of peaty bogs. Again, the mining district of South Staffordshire and Worcestershire, popularly known as the Black Country, affords among its pit-banks a great number of pools which are seldom dried up even in the hottest summer, and many of which are partially fed by water from adjacent mines or engines. Their number has been much diminished during the last few years by the operations of the South Staffordshire Mines Drainage Commission, but is still very large and these constitute a rich hunting ground to the student of freshwater Algæ.

The brief notes which follow must be regarded merely as an indication of the general character of this branch of the Midland Flora. Any attempt systematically to enumerate the recorded species would far exceed the necessary limits of this notice.

The great group of so-called Unicellular Algæ is universally distributed, and the familiar forms included under the ill-defined genera of Pleurococcus, Glœocystis, Tetraspora, Pediastrum, &c., are found abundantly in this district wherever conditions favourable to their growth are present. Among these low forms may be mentioned Apiocystis Brauniana, parasitic on larger Algæ in stagnant pools; the extremely rare Mischococcus confervicola, recorded as found near Stafford, and Polyedrium tetrahedricum found on decaying leaves in a small pit near Sutton. Ophiocytium cochleare, until lately regarded as a very scarce plant, is not uncommon in similar habitats.

The remarkable Hydrodictyon utriculatum, popularly known as “Water Net,” appeared some years ago in Blackroot Pool, Sutton Park, in enormous quantities, but shortly disappeared and has not been seen there since. It has also been recorded by Mr. T. Bolton as found in Bourne Pool, near Aldridge.

The large tribe of Volvocineæ is represented by the well-known forms of Gonium, Pandorina, and Eudorina, and by the typical Volvox globator, which, as is its wont, occasionally appears in some of the pools of the district in great profusion, only to vanish as capriciously. Mr. Bolton has recorded the rare and interesting Volvox globator ♂,—the Sphærosira volvox of Ehrenberg—as occurring in the small pool in the gravel pit near Blackroot Pool, Sutton Park.

Passing to the Zygnemaceæ, Vaucheriaceæ and other filamentous Algæ, we find a large number of species of Zygnema, Spirogyra, Zygogonium, Mesocarpus, Staurocarpus, Vaucheria, &c., occupying ditches, small pools and other stagnant waters; it is scarcely possible to take a bottleful of water from these stations in summer and autumn without finding examples of the curious modes of reproduction characteristic of these genera.

In running streams and in the still ponds of the district the long fronds of Enteromorpha, the dense tresses of brilliant green Cladophoræ and the graceful tufts of Stigeoclonium and Chætophora abound. The exquisite Cœtophora endiviæfolia reappears at intervals in Keeper’s Pool, Sutton Park; this species has also been found by Mr. Bolton in an old gravel pit at Hill Hook and in Earlswood reservoir.

The elegant Bulbochœte setigera is met with in small fragments in stagnant pools, and the singular Coleochœte scutata is to be found adherent to submerged water weeds.

The tepid waters of the South Staffordshire coal district are specially favourable to the growth of Oscillatorieæ, which form on their margins immense sheets of the deepest green velvet.

Several species of Batrachospermum (among which B. atrum is locally the rarest, having been found at Halesowen only) occur in small masses in clear streams, but they must be regarded as somewhat scarce plants. Lemania fluviatilis should be mentioned as common in the Avon and Severn, and the very rare Bangia atropurpurea as occurring on a water wheel in the former river at Stratford-on-Avon, although these habitats are somewhat beyond the limits contemplated in this sketch.

The Diatomaceæ of the neighbourhood do not appear to have been the objects of systematic study, and the only species of special interest which we remember to have found is the wonderful Bacillaria paradoxa, well known as a remarkable microscopic object from the strange manner in which its linear frustules glide over one another, so that the whole plant is incessantly assuming a different form. It has been found by Mr. Bolton, along with many other species, in a disused arm of the canal near Albion Station, and by the writer in a small stream near the same spot. A careful search would doubtless result in the discovery of a large number of representative species of this class.

In conclusion, we turn for a moment to the very beautiful tribe of Desmidieæ, and, although the district by no means abounds in the peaty bogs which are their especial haunts, a goodly list of ordinary species has been recorded. Sutton Park is the best locality for these plants, and in addition to the commoner forms of Micrasterias, Euastrum, Closterium, &c., which are here found in abundance, this habitat has yielded many rare and several new species, among which the following are worthy of special notice, viz.:—Micrasterias papillifera, M. Cruxmelitensis, M. angulosa, M. denticulata, var. lichmoides, and M. Americana, forma major; Cosmarium coronatum, Closterium directum, Cl. angustatum, and Cl. Pritchardianum; Penium closteriodes, P. Jenneri, and P. Nägeli.

A more detailed list of species is inadmissible, but the foregoing brief sketch will suffice to show that the Freshwater Algæ of the neighbourhood are tolerably abundant, and by no means devoid of interest.

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Chapter IV.
The Fungi.

BY W. B. GROVE, B.A.

The district of which Birmingham is the centre is in some ways peculiarly interesting to a British Mycologist. It was the scene of the labours of two students of British Fungi who will always hold an honourable place in the history of the development of the science in this country—William Withering and Thomas Purton.

Withering was in his time (1741-1799) the foremost physician of this town. He lived for many years at Edgbaston Hall, a residence still situated among picturesque scenery just on the edge of the town, and then no doubt a wilder and more productive spot than now. Many species and varieties of Fungi new to Britain or new to science rewarded his constant researches in the park surrounding the hall, and some of the forms which he described still linger in this retreat. Packington Park, about ten miles from the town, is another locality frequently quoted by him; in fact by far the great majority of the species found by Withering himself came from these two places.

Withering enjoys the distinction of being one of the earliest authors on the British Flora, who devoted to the Fungi a space even decently comparable with that devoted to the Flowering plants. In his “Arrangement of British plants” (3rd edition), 1286 species of Phanerogams are recorded, and 566 of Fungi, which thus fill more than one-third as much space as their superiors in rank.

Thomas Purton was a surgeon of Alcester, a town about 18 miles from Birmingham. In his “Midland Flora” (1817-1821), he gives descriptions of over 400 species of Fungi, found chiefly in the neighbourhood of Alcester, especially in Oversley Wood and Ragley Park. He provides moreover excellent coloured engravings of 35 species. Since the whole number of Flowering Plants recorded by Purton from the Midlands is only 798, it will be seen that he surpasses Withering in devoting more than half as much space to the Fungi as to the Phanerogams.

Mrs. Russell, of Kenilworth, made, a few years since, a nearly exhaustive study of the Hymenomycetes of Kenilworth, Stoneleigh, and Warwick, and bequeathed to the British Museum her valuable series of over 300 coloured illustrations. But with this exception little has been done recently to elucidate the Fungi of the neighbourhood of this town, until the subject was taken up, within the last few years, by Mr. J. E. Bagnall and the writer. On reckoning up the number of species now known to occur in this district it will be found that they considerably exceed 900. It is probable that the district is as productive as any other in the smaller and microscopic kinds, but the larger species of Fungi are, with few exceptions, not to be found in any great abundance.

From want of sufficient material, it is not possible to treat this group successfully, as has been done with the Phanerogams, according to the counties. It will be preferable merely to string together short notices of a few of the more remarkable or uncommon kinds, according to the orders into which the class “Fungi” is divided. The names are those of Stevenson’s “Hymenomycetes Britannici,” so far as it is published, and of Cooke’s “Handbook” or “Grevillea” for the rest.

The first and most conspicuous of these orders is the Hymenomycetes, the mushroom and toad-stool family, of which the common mushroom may be taken as the type. These are all distinguished by having the spore-bearing cells arranged in a more or less continuous exposed surface, even or variously folded. In the more typical species, this surface assumes the form of the flat laminæ which are termed gills. Of these, Agaricus nitidus has been found at Coleshill Pool; the yellow variety of Ag. cepæstipes at Sutton Coldfield; Ag. polystictus and Ag. pessundatus, near Kenilworth; Ag. stans in Edgbaston Park; Ag. virgatus, both there and at Coleshill Pool; Ag. inornatus at Kenilworth; Ag. tuba, at Middleton; Ag. ditopus, there and in Edgbaston Park; Ag. platyphyllus frequently in and near Sutton Park; Ag. rancidus at Middleton; Ag. pullatus, at Coleshill Pool; Ag. leucogalus, at New Park, Middleton; Ag. electicus, on rush stems in Sutton Park; Ag. subpalmatus, at Kenilworth and near Studley Castle; Ag. petaloides, var. spathulatus, at Oversley; Ag. volvaceus, Ag. speciosus, and Ag. umbrosus, at Kenilworth; Ag. jubatus, near Barnt Green; Ag. heteroclitus, many striking and well developed specimens at Sutton Coldfield; and Ag. lanuginosus, in Oversley Wood. Ag. horizontalis is said by Purton to be “not rare” near Alcester, and he records Ag. erinaceus and Ag. pezizoides from the same locality. Ag. echinatus, with its remarkable blood-red gills, is found frequently at Sutton Coldfield. At this point in the systematic order comes in the mysterious Ag. versicolor of Withering, of which he found only a few specimens in Edgbaston Park, and which has never since been seen by any other author; yet neither Fries nor the others venture to omit it, because Withering gives so clear and unmistakeable a description as almost to preclude the possibility of error. Ag. luteonitens and Ag. sarcocephalus have been found at Kenilworth; Ag. udus is common in Sutton Park and the neighbourhood, and is also found among the Lickey Hills, accompanied in the latter place by the variety polytrichi. Ag. areolatus has been found at Warwick; Ag. atrorufus at Sutton; Ag. retirugis at Kenilworth and Middleton; and Bolton’s Ag. cinctulus (“History of Funguses,” tab. 152), which is omitted by Fries as possibly incorrectly figured, is said by Purton to be “not rare” near Alcester.

Of the genera allied to Agaricus, the rare species found here are rather few. The district seems to be especially ill supplied with the larger Cortinarii. Scarcely more than thirty species of this genus are recorded, of which the following may be mentioned:—Cortinarius cyanipes, from Kenilworth; C. callochrous, from Edgbaston; C. scaurus, from Packington; C. violaceus, which seems to have been found by Purton; C. callisteus and C. ochroleucus, from Kenilworth; C. sanguineus, in Sutton Park; C. bulbosus, from Oversley; C. armillatus, at Coleshill Pool; C. brunneus (recorded only by Withering among British authors), in Packington Park; and C. hemitrichus, in Sutton Park.

The other gilled genera may be briefly dismissed. Gomphidius viscidus and G. glutinosus have both occurred in the district. Lactarii are not uncommon. L. deliciosus is frequent in a certain part of Sutton Park, and is recorded by both Withering and Purton; it also occurs at Hagley and at Bromsgrove Lickey, but is very local. L. turpis, of large size, abounds in several woods in the neighbourhood of Sutton; L. cilicioides, L. uvidus, L. hysginus, L. zonarius, L. pyrogalus, L. glyciosmus, and L. camphoratus, in addition to the more common species, have all been found; as also Russula delica, R. rosacea, R. citrina, R. lutea, and the very rare R. drimeia, Hygrophorus chrysodon and H. russo-coriaceus have been found at Kenilworth; Purton found the pretty little Marasmius Hudsoni; Lentinus tigrinus is recorded by Withering, from Packington Park; L. adhœrens by both Withering and Purton; and L. lepideus and L. cochleatus have been met with several times. Panus conchatus was found by Withering at Edgbaston, and by Purton at Studley, and the writer has found P. torulosus in Packington Park.

Among the pore-bearing Hymenomycetes, the most striking and rare is Boletus (Strobilomyces) strobilaceus, found at “the Valley,” Bromsgrove, in 1861. Boletus badius is rather common, and is an edible species. The rare B. parasiticus has been found at Middleton; B. striæpes and B. olivaceus are also on record. The writer has found the true Polyporus frondosus Fr. once in Sutton Park, and fine specimens of P. giganteus in Edgbaston Park. Purton records P. heteroclitus from Oversley, and P. molluscus is occasionally found at Sutton and Coleshill Pool. The curious Ptychogaster albus, which is now usually considered a conidial form of a Polyporus, called P. ptychogaster, has occurred in Sutton Park on stumps of firs. Trametes gibbosa is found at Sutton; Dædalea confragosa in the coppice near Windley Pool; and the edible Fistulina hepatica is occasionally met with on old oaks in Sutton Park, Hagley Park, and elsewhere.

Dismissing the rest of the Hymenomycetes, in which there is little worthy of mention to record, we come to the Gastromycetes, or Puff-ball family, in which the spore-bearing surface is more or less concealed within an outer coating, and most frequently breaks up into a dusty mass. The Myxomycetes, which were formerly included in this group, will here be placed in their proper position at the end of the Fungi. Of the aberrant group to which the common Stinkhorn (not very common in this district) belongs, the more brilliant Cynophallus caninus is recorded by Purton, from near Bridgnorth, and was found at Bromsgrove Lickey, in 1856. The very rare and remarkable Earth-star, Geaster coliformis, has not been found in the district to which this notice is limited, but it has been twice found in the county of Worcester. The localities are given as “near Hanley Castle, Worcestershire,” Mr. Ballard, by Withering; and “Hanley Common, Worcestershire,” Mr. Rufford, by Purton. In the same place Geaster fornicatus occurred, and this is said by Withering to have been found also “at Birches Green, near Birmingham.” G. limbatus is recorded from Edgbaston Park, Stonebridge, Allesley, Oversley, and Rushford.

Another group of Fungi is that which grows upon living leaves, the various forms of which are known as Cluster-cups, Rust, Smut and Brand. These are what are usually called Leaf-Fungi. Many species are common here; but, as most kinds grow only upon certain specified plants, it follows that their range is determined in great measure by the presence or absence of their hosts. Podisoma sabinæ and P. juniperi have been found in the district. The only rare cluster-cup recorded is Œcidium depauperans, which occurs every summer on cultivated Violas in a few localities, and in one of these it is uniformly accompanied and followed by the Puccinia, to which the name of Puccinia ægra has been given by the writer. Till lately this Œcidium was not known to occur out of the United Kingdom, but Professor Trelease, of St. Louis, in a private letter says that he has recently seen in the United States specimens apparently identical with it. Puccinia sonchi was found by Mr. Hawkes, near Great Barr, on seedlings of Sonchus, and as yet has not been found anywhere else in Great Britain.

The species of the next group, the Discomycetes, or Cup-fungi, are not uncommon, though few of the showy forms are to be seen. The common Morell occurs, sparingly in the district, and Morchella semilibera is recorded from Badsey. Helvella crispa, H. lacunosa, H. elastica; Mitrula paludosa; Spathularia flavida; Leotia lubrica; Geoglossum glabrum, G. hirsutum, and Rhizina undulata have all been found, though rarely. Among the minuter species may be mentioned Peziza dematiicola, of which the writer found a few specimens at Sutton two years ago, this being the first and at present the only locality cited, since the place where the original specimens of Berkeley were discovered is unknown. P. asperior has been found at Berkswell (the only British locality); the curious P. Curreiana, on rush stems in Sutton Park and elsewhere; and the rare P. Crouani, P. Dalmeniensis, P. stereicola; Ascobolus minutissimus; Vibrissea leptospora; Propolis pyri, and a new species which Mr. Phillips has named Dermatea nectrioides, at various places in the neighbourhood.

The next group of Fungi is the Pyrenomycetes or Globe-fungi. They occur usually on dead bark and wood, or stalks of plants, and are mostly black, more rarely red or brown. Several common species look like grains of gunpowder scattered over the wood. Among these Withering mentions no species at all rare from this district, and Purton only three—Melogramma Bulliardi, M. gastrinum, and Sphæria pomiformis. To these may be added Nectria mammoidea and Hypomyces candicans from near Sutton; Eutypa velutina and E. scabrosa from Berkswell; Valsa cincta Fr., V. aglæostoma, and Sphæria ampullasca, from Sutton; Lophiostoma angustilabra, from Middleton; and the interesting Gymnoascus ruber, which affords a glimpse of the mode by which the Pyrenomycetes were evolved, has appeared in Birmingham itself.

Of the Mucorini or Pin-mould family, to which belongs the pin-shaped mould, so common on decaying meat—two species of Pilobolus, P. œdipus and P. Kleinii, remarkable for their extraordinary explosive power, have been found here and nowhere else in the kingdom. The same is true of two species of Mortierella, M. Candelabrum and M. polycephala, of which even the genus is not known from any other British locality.

Lastly we come to the Myxomycetes, a group which, though distinctly fungal, approximates in some degree to the animal kingdom. These are rather abundant here, nearly one third of the British Species having been found; including the rare Didymium pertusum; Badhamia hyalina; Enerthenema papillatum; Dictydium umbilicatum; Cribraria aurantiaca; Arcyria cinerea, and Prototrichia flagellifera. Worthy of especial notice is Physarum leucophæum Fr., hitherto only known as British by specimens published by Cooke in his “Fungi Britannici.” The writer has found this at Sutton in abundance, and identifies it with the heretofore unidentified Trichia rubiformis of Purton, whose description is accompanied by an exceedingly accurate and picturesque plate (“Midland Flora,” tab. 37.)

Besides the groups of Fungi enumerated above, there are others more obscure and consequently less interesting to many students, of which no mention will be made here, although numerous rare or undescribed species belonging to them have been found in the district within recent years.

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APPENDIX.
Articles Received too Late to be Included Alphabetically Between Pages 117 & 212.

Chains, Cables, and Anchors.—[Benjamin Hingley, M.P.]—(B. 99). The manufacture of chains, cables, and anchors is carried on at Tipton, and to a much larger extent at Netherton, and in the neighbourhood of Old Hill near Dudley. The manufacture of chain cables in their present form, namely, with elongated links supported by a bar or stud in the centre of each link is of comparatively modern origin; there are Naval men still living who remember that Men-of-War and Merchant Ships were fitted with hempen cables of large diameter, which occupied a considerable space in the fore-hold of the ship. The British Fleet in Nelson’s fighting days knew not chain cables, but was encumbered with large coils of hempen rope.

It is certain that iron chains of some description were known and used in the days of the Romans, as it is recorded that Julius Cæsar could not cut the cables of the vessels of the Gauls, because they were made of iron. Such chains were doubtless a succession of iron rings, or “S” hooks of comparatively small size. It is believed that the first chain cable was used on a British Ship, in the year 1808. It was made by a blacksmith named Robert Flinn, at North Shields, for a vessel which at that time was reckoned to be of a considerable size, namely, the “Ann and Isabella.” of 221 tons. It not only saved that vessel when in peril, but also saved a whole tier of ships that had been made fast to her, their hempen cables having been cut by the ice, owing to a great flood with much ice in the Tyne. This notable instance gave a great impetus to the making of chain cables on the banks of the Tyne, where it is still carried on to a considerable extent.

At about the same date, Samuel Brown, afterwards Sir Samuel Brown, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, having, it is said, been in communication with Flinn, and taken a great interest in Flinn’s iron cables, took out a patent, and in the year 1810 he prevailed upon the British Admiralty to put iron cables on several Men-of-War, with such successful results that the days of hempen cables became numbered; Lieutenant Brown afterwards devoted his attention to the making of chain cables, and established a manufactory at Millwall on the Thames, he also, with the assistance of “John Rennie, an Engineer,” constructed an efficient testing machine as he “was of opinion that there was nothing more essential in completing an iron cable than the most rigid attention to proving.”

The manufacture of chain cables naturally commenced on the sea coast, and it rapidly spread from the Tyne and Wear, where it first commenced, to London, Liverpool, Bristol, and to Aberdeen, and Irvine in Scotland. It may be said, that up to the year 1820, although chain making was a local industry in the district of Birmingham, it was confined to small welded chains in the form of elongated rings, for farming and domestic purposes; but about the year 1820 a new impetus was given to it by the late Mr. Noah Hingley, who then carried on business as a nail master and dealer in small chains at Cradley Heath near Dudley. He in the course of his business made periodical visits to the Port of Liverpool, travelling sometimes by the Stage Coach, and at other times on horseback, and there, one of the new chain cables, with a stud in the centre of each link, attracted his attention. He at once resolved to develop the trade in Staffordshire, and without hesitation made a contract to supply to a Liverpool ship owner, a chain cable made of iron 1½ inch diameter to be used in lieu of an hempen one. It was a bold venture, as no workman in the Midland district had ever seen a chain of such large size, or one fitted with studs, but after a few trials a workman with the assistance of two strikers, and two boys to blow the bellows, succeeded in turning out a good chain cable which was duly delivered in Liverpool, and did good service on board ship. The making of this first chain cable was a source of wonder in the district, and people came from far and wide to see it.

Mr. Hingley afterwards introduced the making of anchors in a similar manner—bringing men from Liverpool with a knowledge of the trade, and afterwards erecting the first Nasmyth’s steam hammer for that purpose in the Staffordshire district, namely, at Netherton Ironworks, near Dudley.

Mr. Hingley lived to see the chain cable and anchor trade developed to a large extent, and by several eminent firms who engaged in the business in and about Dudley; he also took part in the establishment of efficient public testing machines at Netherton and at Tipton, under the authority of an Act of Parliament, making compulsory the testing of cables and anchors for British ships. The machines in question are under the control of the Board of Trade, and of Lloyd’s Registry of British and Foreign shipping, and are of the most powerful description. One of the machines at Netherton is not only capable of testing, but also of breaking for experimental purposes, a chain made of bar iron 4 inches in diameter.

The manufacture of anchors and cables is now almost exclusively located in Staffordshire, having entirely left the sea coast except at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The making of chain cables and anchors is for the most part carried on in factories and exclusively by men and boys with the aid of machinery, but the smaller chains for a variety of purposes, and especially trace chains, are made to a large extent by women and girls in shops attached to the cottages. There are many hundreds, probably a thousand or two, of the shops in question spread around the district of Cradley Heath and Old Hill in the county of Stafford. It cannot be said that such work is unsuitable for women and girls within certain limits; but there is no doubt that close inspection under the Workshops Act is necessary, and that there should be strict limitations of the hours of labour. The tendency is not only to work children of tender years, but to do so until late at night, especially at the end of the week, to make up for lost time in the earlier part of the week. It is computed that the Staffordshire chain and anchor trade as a whole consumes annually about 50,000 to 70,000 tons of iron, according to the state of trade, and the annual value, when trade is fair, approaches one million sterling. The workpeople earn from five shillings per week—the wages of a woman or girl—to fifty shillings per week, the wages of a large cable maker. It is a singular fact that anchor makers are to a considerable extent either Irish or of Irish origin, the descendants of the original stock imported from Liverpool by the late Mr. Noah Hingley. Their work is laborious and the wages continue high, varying from thirty to sixty shillings per week, and for the most part they spend it freely.

Die Sinking.—[G. Sherriff Tye.]—(B. 560.) For brooches, buttons, &c., a block of iron is moulded by the forger on to which a piece of cast steel is welded. Medal dies are all steel, as the powerful pressure applied would flatten them were they of iron. When a sharp blow is given, instead of pressure, the part-steel die stands the blow well, though it will not withstand a squeeze. While the steel is soft the die is cut out with steel cutting tools and finished by gravers, previous to the final polishing. The die sinkers of Birmingham make dies for the following purposes, among others: buttons, military ornaments, brassfoundry, plated wares, tea trays and tin work, gun work and small iron work, medals and coins, jewellery, seals for wax and paper embossing, brass dies for paper wrappers and bands, as used in the wholesale linen trades; needles, papers, etc., wheels and rolls for ornamenting metal tubes or sheets.

Saddlery Trade.—[Thomas Middlemore.]—(B. 463). Obsolete Articles of Manufacture.—The articles supplied by the Saddlery trades being for use rather than for ornament, it follows that fashion can have little effect in making any of them obsolete. Old wants have still to be satisfied.

It is yet worth noticing that whilst a very large trade was done some 30 years ago in shot belts, shot and cap pouches, and powder flasks, this trade has now become practically obsolete, since the breechloader has superseded the muzzleloader. Cartridges, both for military and sporting purposes, are now carried in a bag, or a bandolier, i.e., a shoulder or waist belt, to which is fastened transversely a series of pockets, each of which holds a cartridge.

New varieties introduced.—For welts of saddles, “hide bellies” split very thin have for the most part taken the place of seal skins. Crocodile skins have been used occasionally for saddles with indifferent success, but for bags, purses and pocket books, they, along with snake skins, have been largely and successfully employed. Calf skins for the latter purposes have been superseded by hides split specially thin. Kangaroo skins are now used in the whip trade for covering whips, but still more for making the whip thong. Hog skins, for which formerly the sole use was the saddle manufacture, are now prepared for furniture purposes, bookbinding, and bags. They have the advantages of being very durable, and of having a unique and handsome grain.

Saddles—The old “spring bar,” to which the stirrup leather is fastened, is gradually giving way to the “safety bar,” the object of which is to release the rider in the event of a fall, and to remove the danger of his being dragged, which is an universally admitted fault of the old “spring bar.” Further, increased safety is secured to lady riders by various “safety stirrups” which render dragging by the foot impossible. For the comfort of the horse the following inventions are worth notice:—“Gaussen’s corrugated rubber pannels” which break the jar caused by the weight of the rider—“Inflated air pannels,” which have the same effect—“ventilating pannels,” which are at the same time movable; these last prevent the danger of sore backs, and are very readily cleaned; they promise to become of general use.

Harness.—The changes that have here taken place concern rather the furniture or metal work, than the general form. For cheaper kinds of harness, electro-plating has superseded close plating. Again, electro-plating in its turn is being superseded by the new white metals, which are alloys having the colour of silver, and of analogous composition to German silver. The advantages of the new metals are, that they are uniform in their composition, and therefore durable, cheap, and of good appearance.

Military.—The regulation saddle of 20 years back, called the “Nolan,” has been superseded by an “Iron Arch Saddle,” and now another regulation, introduced in 1884, made entirely of steel, with the exception of the wooden side bars, is being used along with the “Iron Arch Saddle.” The old “knapsack” has given place to the new “Valise Equipment,” which was designed to distribute the weight of the pack more evenly. On the introduction of the Camel Corps, a special equipment was designed. Large quantities of this pattern were used in the Egyptian campaign.

Travelling Appointments.—The “Gladstone Bag,” a combination of a bag and portmanteau, has become more popular than any kind of either the one or the other. Tin Boxes have quite replaced the old wooden trunks. The quality has, however, of late years, been so reduced in order to force a sale, that unquestionably a reaction has set in against them. When damaged they are unsightly, and cannot be repaired. Baskets covered with canvas or leather are now, in consequence of their cheapness, lightness, and strength, much used for ladies’ travelling trunks. The introduction of Bicycles and Tricycles has created a new and vast trade in saddles, satchels, and the like for wheelmen. The trade is now only second in importance to that for ordinary English riding saddles.

Increase since 1865.—In the year 1864, the declared value of the exports of saddlery and harness for the United Kingdom was £345,419. For the year 1885, the total value was only £385,687. This increase, of less than 12 per cent., compares unfavourably with that of the sixteen years from 1849 to 1865, which was more than 300 per cent. The exports for the first four months of the present year were £122,093, which is less than the exports for the same period in 1865 by £8,569. This declining prosperity, which has occurred during the past five years, is due to a strangled trade in South Africa, and droughts in Australasia. Good seasons, and a rise in the wool market, give promise of an immediately better future for the saddlery trade.

Effects of the spread of Civilization on Supply of Raw Material.—The most noteworthy fact in the leather trade, with regard to the spread of civilization upon its supply of material, is furnished by the basils now sent in enormous quantities from the Australasian Colonies. Before 1865, a sheep was grown simply for its fleece, and tallow. Of late years the skin has been tanned, and converted into a basil. These Colonial basils supply a demand which the home production has, of late years, failed to satisfy. The Colonial basils are excellent in colour and texture. If they were tanned in larch instead of the native mimosa bark, they could scarcely be further improved. The increase of competition has, during the past twenty years, led to the adulteration of leather. The adulterants most used are glucose and barytes. Such adulteration is now so general, that large consumers of leather are compelled to avail themselves of the resources of chemical science, in order to learn the true value of the leather they buy, by ascertaining the kind, and by estimating the quantity of the adulterant employed in the leather tested.

New Processes introduced in Leather Dressing.—The old “Splitting” Machines have been improved, and a new kind called the “Band Knife” has been introduced. Further Machines for “Scouring,” “Setting,” and “Rolling” leather have been invented, which do their work both better and cheaper than hand labour. The currier, as a rule, welcomes these machines, since he is thereby relieved from much hard physical toil, whilst his special skill has an unimpaired scope, and is just that part of his work that is best remunerated. Saddles—The sewing by Machine has now become universal, and in point of quality is only just inferior to hand work. Harness—The “Lock Stitch” Machine has superseded the “Chain Stitch” Machine. The former sews with hard wax, such as is used in handwork. Generally for all cutting, where quantities are required, and when shaped pieces other than strips are wanted, the steam press has superseded the hand knife.

Machinery or Hand Labour.—During the last 20 years all branches of the saddlery trades have benefited by the steadily increased employment of machinery—this is most marked in the currying of leather.

Effects of Improved modes of Manufacture on Cost of Production.—The articles of the saddlery trade combine so many different kinds of material and include such a variety of labour, that no estimate could be relied upon of the reduction of cost due to improved methods of manufacture. The values of articles generally reckoned in money are about 10 per cent. below the values of 1865.

Present Extent and Description of Manufacture.—In regard to the Home trade it is only needful to say that owing to the agricultural depression of the past 10 years, the demand for saddlery has very greatly fallen off. To some extent this falling off in bulk is supplied by the demands of cycle riders. In the Foreign trade the past 20 years have witnessed a vast development of the demand from the South African Colonies. This, owing to a series of seasons of drought, to the commercial panic of the diamond fields, and to the unsettled political state of the Colonies, has been followed by an unparalleled state of depression, which has made the export saddlery trade one of the most disastrously depressed of our industries. Indeed, it has been remarked by one thoroughly conversant with the trade, that, if the present state of things continue, Walsall, which solely depends on the saddlery and leather trades, will, before long, wear the same look as Bruges, with grass growing in its streets.

Effects of Foreign Tariffs.—The effect of the continued high duties in the United States has been to practically kill the English trade both in saddlery and saddlers’ ironmongery. Since the Franco-German war, the French tariff has been increased. This seems to have had little effect on the saddlery trade between England and France. Unquestionably, however, France is now losing markets where formerly her goods were preferred to those of this country.

Where else Manufacture carried on.—Since 1865, Glasgow has ceased to be an important centre of the saddlery trade. It is now chiefly carried on in Birmingham and Walsall, for export saddlery. In military goods, Bermondsey competes with Birmingham and Walsall.

Approximate Number of Persons employed in this Town and District.—Men, Women, Boys, and Girls.—No satisfactory statement can now be made, as the present time is one of exceptional depression.

Average Earnings.—Speaking generally there has been a reduction in money wages of about 10 per cent. This wage reckoned in commodities, of course, represents a substantial improvement, as compared with 1865. In good times the workman was never so well remunerated, and, on the other hand, his employer so poorly rewarded.

Social Condition of Workpeople.—No remark need be made in regard to the improvement of his social condition which the saddler has shared with those of other trades. The Factory Acts have practically ended the employment of children. The trade hardly knows the “half-timer.” The new Patents Act has proved a great stimulus to the invention of the workman.

Utilisation of Waste.—If the past 5 years have been disastrous for the saddlery trade, misfortune has yet taught its lessons. Chief amongst these are an economical use of material, and the utilisation of waste. The belly and shoulder parts of hides, which used often to be sent to market, are now mostly consumed, thus saving capital and enabling a cheaper article to be produced. Again, the scrap leather, which is necessarily created by even the most careful cutting, is now utilised in making goods of extraordinary cheapness. A splitting machine for dividing pieces of leather, however small, into any required number of thicknesses, is of great help to this end. When leather is reduced in size below what is required for any article of commerce, it is then used either for hardening purposes, or to form imitation leather when reduced to a pulp and rolled either by itself or with rope fibre.

Chemicals.—In obtaining the statistical information on [p. 152], I am indebted in great measure to Dr. Bostock Hill, Secretary of the Birmingham Section of the Society of Chemical Industry.—C. J. W.

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APPENDIX TO GEOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY.

Part III., Pages 213 to 265.

MINERALS. (OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT.)

BY C. J. WOODWARD, B.SC., F.G.S.

The crystalline minerals occurring within the limits of the Birmingham district may be most conveniently referred to under the titles of the several counties in which they actually occur. These counties are: Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.

Derbyshire.—The mines in this county are worked out, and there is but little opportunity of meeting with minerals. On the spoil-banks of the old mines poor specimens may be found. Mr. John Tym, of Castleton, is a local dealer, and the guide to the High Tor Grotto has minerals for sale. The following list with localities is taken from a paper on “Economic Geology of Derbyshire,” by Mr. A. H. Stokes, F.G.S., H.M. Inspector of Mines. Barytes, nearly all lead mines, Newhaven; Blende, Old hillocks, near Ashover and Hartington; Gypsum, Chellaston, also railway cutting between Trent and Loughborough; Brown Hæmatite, north west of Hubberdale mine, near Taddington, also near Elton; Brown Lead Ore “Linnets,” Elton, and Newhaven, Winster; Calcite, colourless at lead mines of Nether Haddon, near Bakewell. Alpart, Ashover, and Wirksworth yield good specimens. Elaterite, Windy Knoll Quarry, Main Tor, Castleton; Fluor Spar, Blue John and other mines, Castleton; Limonite, a field, one mile north of Castleton, and to the east of Odin Lead mine; Petroleum, Riddings Colliery, near Alfreton. A sump is sunk at the bottom of the mine, and into this the oil finds its way. Some years as much as 100 tons of oil have been obtained at a price as high as £7. 10s. per ton. Phosgenite, very scarce, Meer Brook Sough mine, near Worksworth; Pyrites, large cubic crystals at Gregory mine, near Ashover; Rock crystal, Buxton, in amygdaloid cavities of toad stone; also Diamond Hill, near Miller’s Dale station; Towanite, Old hillocks at Ecton mine, Cumberland mine, Matlock Bath; Wad, mines near Elton; White Lead Ore (Cerussite), near Brassington; Heyspots mine, near Elton; Cabin mine, Newhaven. A more extensive list of the minerals of Derbyshire, compiled by the Rev. J. M. Mello, will be found in “The Midland Naturalist,” Vol. iv., p. 183.

Gloucestershire.—Mr. H.B. Woodward, of the Geological Survey, has given the following list:—Agate, Berkeley, Damory Bridge; Barytes, Tortworth; Bitumen, Clifton; Brown Spar, Tortworth; Celestine, Tortworth, Thornbury, Wickwar, Aust; Fluor Spar, Clifton; Göthite, Clifton; Jasper, Tortworth; Prehnite, Woodford Bridge, Berkeley; Rock Salt (pseudomorphs), Aust; Steatite, Tortworth; Talc, Tortworth; Vivianite, near Clifton.

Pyle Hill, near Clifton, is a well-known locality for Celestine. At Garden Cliff, near Westbury-on-Severn, the “bone bed” is well exposed, and in this bed occurs plenty of iron pyrites; and in the shales, as might be expected, crystals of selenite occur.

Leicestershire.—Gold occurs in the quartz veins round Pedlar Tor, Charnwood Forest. Garnets occur in “gneiss” at Brazil Wood (Mr. W. J. Harrison). Copper pyrites, Molybdenum, Mount Sorrel and Breedon. Galena, Blende, Dimminsdale; Dolomite, Cloud Hill; Gypsum and Selenite, various places; Iron pyrites in cubes, Swithland Great Pit (Mr. James Plant).

Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.—Barytes, Blende, Calcite, Galena, Glauconite, Gypsum (Selenite), Lignite, Limonite, Pyrites, Websterite, occur in the neighbourhood of Banbury (Mr. Thomas Beesley).

Nottinghamshire.—Gypsum occurs in veins near Retford, and is used for garden rock-work.

Shropshire.—At Lilleshall an old mine known as the Stump Leasow, worked for limestone, yielded the following minerals:[67]—Quartz, a minute crystal only. Erubescite, a few minute patches in the massive form. Copper Pyrites, in sphenoids. Iron Pyrites, in radiating masses. Hæmatite, in minute chocolate-coloured hemispherical masses, also in an almost continual film containing the calc spar and other minerals with a coppery sheen. Barytes, in pink, lamellar, somewhat radiating masses. At the free surfaces of these masses are transparent crystals. Calcite, in beautiful ice-like clusters of crystals taking the form of steep three-faced pyramids. The groups are made up of steep scalenohedrous with rhombohedral summits. The calcite is in some cases pink due to manganese, a sample contained 1·20 per cent. of MnO. In the lower measures the calcite occurs in pointed scalenohedrous lining cavities in the stone. Dolomite, is the most interesting mineral of the group. It occurs in nodules made up of a succession of laminæ of varying diameters, the laminæ crystallizing at the edges in rhombs resembling pearl spar. The composition of one sample of this dolomite is nearly identical with what according to Boricky is one of the possible values of Ankerite. Another approximates to the formula 3 CaCO₃ + (FeMn) CO₃ + MgCO₃ and should be described as a ferriferous dolomite.

In the mining district of West Shropshire many beautiful and interesting minerals are met with. The district is best reached from Birmingham by taking train to Minsterley, via Shrewsbury. At Snailbeach Mine, near Minsterley, occur beautiful rhombs of Calcite, having a violet tinge, due to a small quantity of manganese. There are also crystals of Blende and Galena. At several of the mines Witherite and Barytes are found, and, according to Mr. Morton, other minerals met with are Quartz, Chalcedony, Petroleum, Pyrites, Malachite, Redruthite, Wad, Minium, and Cerussite. At Wotherton, two miles from Chirbury, is a fine barytes lode which has been worked for more than 60 years, at first as an open mine, and subsequently by means of a shaft. The barytes is remarkably pure, and after grinding is sold in large quantities. In the lode are crevices and cavities filled with a fine mud, and penetrating into the mud are fine transparent crystals. These crystals have been measured by Mr. Miers, of the British Museum, and a record of the forms present will be found in his description.[68] (“Nature,” vol. xxix., p. 29.)

In connection with the mineralogy of Shropshire, it should be recorded that the extremely rare instance of the fall of an iron meteorite in the British Isles took place in this county at Rowton, near Wellington, on April 20th, 1876. This meteorite was extracted by Mr. G. Brooks, from the hole in which it had buried itself, and was hot when removed. It is now in the possession of the British Museum, and Prof. Maskelyne has given particulars of it in “Nature,” vol. xiv., p. 472. It weighs 7 lbs. 11 oz., “is a mass of metallic iron irregularly angular, although all its edges appear to have been rounded by fusion in its transit through the air, and, except at the point where it first struck the ground, it is covered by a thin black pellicle of the magnetic oxide of iron … the exposed metallic part of the surface exhibits crystalline structure very clearly when it is etched. It is only the seventh aërosiderite or meteoric iron of which the fall has been witnessed, although upwards of a hundred iron masses have been discovered in different parts of the globe, which are undoubtedly meteoric, and two such have been found in Great Britain.”[69]

Warwickshire.—Many years ago a pocket of Grey Oxide of Manganese was found near Atherstone, but I have been unable to find now any traces of it. Gypsum occurs in the cutting of a disused railway near Henley-in-Arden, and at Spernall (Spernall Plaster Pits), near Alcester. Mr. A. H. Atkins has called attention to the fact that gypsum was met with in sinking an artesian well in Small Heath Park, near Birmingham; he also mentions the occurrence of Green Copper Carbonate at Vaughton’s Hole, near Birmingham.

Worcestershire.—Dr. Harvey B. Holl mentions the following minerals as occurring at the Malvern Hills:—Quartz, Orthoclase, Labradorite, Anderine, Potash Mica, Ferruginous Mica (Biolite), Augite, Hornblende, Epidote, Chlorite, Hæmatite, Calc Spar, Graphite, Zeolites, and Garnet.

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[The following articles refer to subjects which could not be included in previous papers, and which are yet worth notice as part of the history of Birmingham.—Ed.]

Botanical Gardens.—[Sam: Timmins.]—The first proposal to establish Botanical Gardens, in accordance with the science of horticulture of the time, was made in 1829. Twelve acres were secured in the then rural suburb of Edgbaston, and on the advice of the famous J. C. Loudon four more acres were added, and the buildings erected by Clarke of Birmingham, and opened to the public in 1831. The original capital was 500 shares of £5 each, and an annual payment of three guineas which secured certain privileges of admission beyond those of the subscriber’s payment. The institution flourished, with some vicissitudes, for many years, but was necessarily exclusive, and only recently have admissions been made more easy by reduced and varying charges on different days. On Monday—the people’s day—large numbers attend, and the experiment has proved successful. The buildings were recently greatly extended and rearranged from the designs of Mr. Frank Osborne, and are now believed to be amongst the best of the kingdom. Flower shows are held during the summer, and prizes awarded, which are eagerly contended for by numerous horticulturists and florists of the town and neighbourhood.

Guinea Gardens.—[Sam: Timmins.]—Near the Botanical Gardens a group of small gardens may be seen, which are the only “survivals” of the acres of “allotment gardens” or “guinea gardens,” which surrounded Birmingham within a mile from the centre as late as 1830 to 1840. Birmingham was, in fact, a town of gardens fifty years ago, not merely as to the gardens attached to houses—front and back gardens in the principal parts of the town,—but of the groups of gardens rented by workmen and others, who could reach their gardens easily from their homes by a short walk, and devote mornings and evenings to them. The sites of the Kent Street Baths, and those opposite St. Thomas’s Church,—at Ladywood, Spring Hill, Hockley, Handsworth, and Aston road,—all within the Parish Boundary, formed a belt of gardens where the workman and his family often spent the summer evenings and enjoyed the (then) country air. All is now changed, and the distances even by rail and tram are too great, and land too valuable, to be let out in readily accessible gardens for the workers of the town, who cannot for many reasons live in the suburbs which railways have opened since 1840.

Sunday Lecture Society.—[Thos. Rose.]—This Society, which has now become one of the most successful of our local institutions, had a very humble origin. In 1877, a few members of the Birmingham Temperance Society (foremost amongst whom was Mr. Thos. Hewins), conceived the idea of holding Meetings on Sunday evenings “for the social, moral, and intellectual improvement of the non-church and chapel-going portion of the community.” They accordingly formed themselves into a Committee, who engaged the then newly erected Board Schools in Bristol Street, for the winter season of 1877-8, and commenced what were described as “Sunday Evening Meetings for the People.” For a short time these meetings were of a purely temperance character, but finding that they were not so thoroughly appreciated as they had expected, the Committee extended the variety of the subjects, and lectures were delivered embracing a wide range of thought, both moral and religious, literary and dramatic, scientific and historical, occasionally interspersed with musical evenings illustrative of the principal oratorios. Foremost amongst the lecturers (who numbered many of our chief local literary and scientific men), was Mr. Sam: Timmins, who from the first took an active part in the movement, the success of which was from this time assured, the lectures being attended by crowded and appreciative audiences every Sunday evening, and occasionally hundreds were unable to obtain admission.

In 1880, the then Mayor (Alderman R. Chamberlain), generously offered the Committee the free use of the Town Hall, and for some months the lectures were delivered consecutively in that place to audiences numbering from 3 to 4,000 each Sunday. This gave rise to considerable opposition on the part of the various religious sects of the town against what was considered to be “a monopoly of the use of the hall by one particular sect,” and after much controversy in the public press, and debate in the Town Council, the question of the letting of the Town Hall on Sundays was left in the hands of the Mayor for the time being, on the understanding that its continuous use by any one sect should be refused. Thereupon the lectures were resumed in the Bristol Street Board School, with occasional special lectures in the Town Hall.

In 1881, the movement assumed a more representative character. The then Hon. Sec. (Mr. T. Rose), assisted by some of the leading members of the Committee, took steps to organize a Sunday Lecture Society, and a Meeting was held on July 1st, 1881, under the Presidency of Mr. William Harris, J.P., when the present Society was publicly inaugurated, the objects being—“To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Borough of Birmingham, and to encourage the delivery elsewhere of lectures upon subjects calculated to promote the social, moral, and intellectual well-being of the community at large, as hitherto conducted by the Committee of the Sunday Evening Meetings for the People.”

The constitution of the Society also provided that a minimum subscription of One Shilling per year should constitute membership, and that any pecuniary profit should be applied to the further promotion of the objects of the Society. Mr. Sam: Timmins was elected first President, and the management of its affairs was entrusted to a Committee of 30, exclusive of Officers, to be elected annually from amongst the body of members.

In the first year of the Society’s existence the members numbered 80, including the names of many of the most influential public men of the town, and the subscription list amounted to £45. 14s. 6d. The number of members is now 168, and the subscription list amounts to £70; the income being further augmented by the collections taken at the various lectures (which are thus largely self-supporting). Nearly all the lectures being given voluntarily, the cost of working the Society is comparatively small, and is fully met by the income derived from subscriptions and collections. Five of the principal Board Schools are engaged every Sunday evening throughout the winter season, from October to April, and at intervals special lectures are delivered in the Town Hall. During the season from 1885 to 1886, 71 lectures were delivered at the Board Schools, with a total attendance of 23,150, or an average of 326 to each lecture, and 10 lectures were delivered at the Town Hall, with a total attendance of 33,000, or an average of 3,300 for each lecture. Ald. R. Chamberlain, M.P., is now President of the Society, as well as one of its most popular lecturers. In Councillor R. F. Martineau, the Committee possesses a most able and energetic Chairman. Mr. W. B. Smith is the Treasurer, and Mr. J. H. Forrester, No. 1, Summer Hill Terrace, worthily fills the office of Hon. Secretary.

Newspapers.—[Sam: Timmins.]—The earliest known Birmingham Newspaper was “The Birmingham Journal,” published by Thomas Warren, in 1733. It was at first published on Thursdays, but afterwards on Mondays. Only one copy has survived, that of May 21st, 1733, No. XXVIII. The “Journal” is interesting as it shows some traces of the style of Dr. Johnson, who very probably assisted Warren in his newspaper. “Aris’s Birmingham Gazette” was first published in 1741, and its original title is used on the Saturday issue from the Daily Gazette Office to this day. It was originally published on Mondays, and some of its earlier issues bore another heading, for special County circulation. “Swinney’s Birmingham Chronicle” was published for several years, from 1796 to 1816, but no complete file has been preserved. Jabet’s “Commercial Herald” was issued from 1804 to 1813. The “Birmingham Journal” was revived in 1825, by Wm. Hodgetts, and was continued until absorbed in “The Daily Post.” The “Birmingham Advertiser” was commenced in 1833, and continued till 1845. In 1836, the “Midland Counties Herald” was begun on a new plan of gratuitous circulation and is continued as a sheet of advertisements and news relating to the land and agricultural interests to this day. The “Birmingham Morning News” appeared in 1871, with George Dawson as its first editor, and was continued till 1875.

“Aris’s Birmingham Gazette” was one of the first two country papers which began a series of “Local Notes and Queries” in 1856. The example has been very generally followed, and the series continued in the “Weekly Post” and the “Weekly Mercury,” and many important facts of local history have thus been discovered and preserved.

The removal of the “taxes on knowledge”—the stamp duty and advertisement duty and the paper duty—soon produced local daily papers, the first being the “Daily Press,” in 1855, edited for some time by George Dawson, and followed by the “Daily Mercury.” In 1857 the “Daily Post” was started, and in 1879 the “Daily Globe” appeared. In 1869 the “Midland Illustrated News” was begun, but it survived only about a year and a half. Among the other newspapers were the “Birmingham Chronicle” (1823); the “Midland Chronicle” (1811); the “Philanthropist” (1835). Many other short-lived newspapers have been issued from time to time—many of which are to some extent preserved by odd copies in the Reference Library, and among them a German newspaper of which only one number appeared. Birmingham was one of the first towns which produced a Sunday newspaper—the “Sunday Echo,” and some others have been issued since. The “cheap press” secured a very large number of readers, when the first halfpenny daily evening paper, the “Daily Mail,” was established in 1869, followed for some time by a similar issue from the “Daily Gazette” office, and afterwards by the “Midland Echo.”

Many monthly pamphlets—practically newspapers—were issued, such as the “Independent” (1827), and “Inspector” (1817); the “Weekly Recorder” and “Register” (1819), by George Edmonds; and many serials, sarcastic or humorous, have appeared from time to time. The scurrilous “Argus” of fifty years ago, and later the “Town Crier” (1861), “Brum,” “Graphic,” “Dart,” “Owl,” “Free Lance,” &c., with our illustrated “Phonographic Punch,” and one local monthly, “Edgbastonia,” in which many interesting biographies of local celebrities have appeared. On several occasions Sunday sermons have been published in serials such as the “Birmingham Pulpit” (1871-73). Other attempts to establish newspapers for discussion rather than mere news have been tried as in the “Liberal Review” (1880).

Theatres.—[Sam: Timmins.]—Birmingham has been famous as a theatrical town for nearly a century, and especially as the “training ground” where many of the leading actors of the present century learned their art and won their first laurels. The stage was, however, rather a late creation in Birmingham, and no traces are found earlier than about 1730, when mere booths served the purpose of a “play-house,” and actors were only “rogues and vagabonds” according to law. “A shed in Temple Street” and a “stable in Castle Street,” with admission threepence each, and the small band parading the town during the day, in the absence of newspapers, to announce the performance, formed, according to Hutton, the “rise of the drama” in our town. As early as 1750 travelling circuses and theatres appeared in Coleshill Street; and in 1802 the famous Astley brought his circus to the “back of the Stork Hotel.” In 1730 a temporary building was erected in Moor Street, in 1743 another in New Street, in 1747 another in Smallbrook Street, and in 1776 a more important and permanent theatre was built in King Street—a street covered by the railway station and Stephenson Place, and the site of the theatre being now that of the front of the Exchange. This became an important theatre, and existed till late in the century in competition with the present Theatre Royal, which was founded about the same date. The few play bills which have survived, and the expenditure on the building, show that every effort was made to do justice to the drama a century ago. At this date theatres were merely tolerated, but in 1777 an application was made for a licence for the New Street Theatre to play for “four months in the year,” and this application was somewhat famous, for it was eloquently supported by Edmund Burke, who used the phrase—since so well-known and so little understood—that Birmingham was the “great Toy-shop of Europe.” The phrase, however, was not new, but was used in a book by Sir Samuel Morland a hundred years earlier to describe the shops where trinkets and small steel and iron wares were sold, and not in connection with children’s “toys.” The second reading of the Bill, to enable His Majesty the King to grant a Patent was, however, lost, but the enterprise was continued, and in 1780 the present front of the Theatre Royal was erected with a commodious theatre, well lighted by wax candles, and with “the passages warmed with stoves” as the performances were to be given in the winter as well as the summer months. It was not till 1807 that a “Patent” was secured for the Theatre which then became the Theatre Royal, and still remains under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain. In 1778 a “wooden building” was erected as an “opera house,” near the Plough and Harrow, in the Moseley Road, but this was burned down soon after. In 1792, the Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire, and again in 1820, but the front remained unharmed in these two great fires and the medallions of Shakespeare and Garrick remain as placed in 1780. In both cases the fires were believed to be incendiary and with good reason too. In 1795 the Theatre was rebuilt and re-opened by William Macready, who remained till 1810, in which year, on June 11, his future famous son, William Charles Macready, appeared as Romeo,—“a young gentleman and his first appearance on any stage.” In 1813, Macready was followed by Elliston, as lessee, and in 1819 he was succeeded by Alfred Bunn. During all this period all the great actresses, and actors, and singers, and celebrities of the time appeared on the Theatre Royal stage, and a very complete series of Play Bills has fortunately been preserved. The present lessee, Mr. M. H. Simpson, and his father have had the Theatre Royal for fifty years, and recently additions and alterations have been made, not only in the Theatre proper, but in the accessory rooms for actors and scenery which have never been surpassed for extent and convenience. The Theatre Royal was, practically, the only theatre for many years, but in 1853 a dramatic licence was granted by the magistrates for a building on the Bingley Hall site: in 1856 the “Music Hall” in Broad Street was built, but in 1862 it was converted into a theatre, and opened as the Royal Operetta House, by Mr. W. H. Swanborough. In 1866 it was bought by Mr. James Rodgers, and in 1876 was practically rebuilt, and additions and alterations are now in progress under Mr. Rodgers and his Son. In 1879 a license was granted to the Holte Theatre, in the Aston Lower Grounds; and the Grand Theatre, Corporation Street, built and managed by Mr. Andrew Melville, was opened November 14, 1883. In 1785 an Amphitheatre existed in Livery Street and was converted into a Chapel: in King Street the Theatre was also converted into a Chapel, and afterwards back again to a Public Hall; and in 1827 the Circus of James Ryan, permanently built some years later, was converted into the Circus Chapel. In short, the great progress of Birmingham in the second half of the last century was felt in every way: the Musical Festival was founded, and the drama grew rapidly as the town extended and the taste of the public improved.