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.
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.