with such variety of soil and aspect, there is a very wide field afforded for the botanist, and it is not a little surprising, and much to be lamented, that there is no published Flora of Somerset, containing in its pages all the necessary information. In the literature of botany, county or local Floras become of much account--such, for instance, are Leighton's Flora of Shropshire, and Mr. Baker's recently published supplement to the Flora of Yorkshire-books the value of which are well known to botanists.

Before closing this paper, I would beg leave to suggest to persons interested in the science, the benefit which may accrue to its more complete study by their noting down the species occurring in their respective neighbourhoods, in the last edition of the London Catalogue of British Plantsthe one generally employed for that purpose by English

botanists.

The enclosing of commons and waste land, and progress of agricultural improvements generally, must unavoidably destroy the habitats of many rare plants, and in some instances lead to their extinction; such, I fear, is the case with Chrysocoma lynosiris and Lobelia urens, which used formerly to grow near Axminster. Therefore, it is parti cularly desirable that a record should be kept of rare indigenous plants. Some few species there are, such as Veronica Buxbaumii, which become naturalized in our fields by the agency of the farmer, who scatters the germ unwittingly along with his clover or other seed obtained from the Continent; and though the botanist may not look with an unfriendly eye upon the "foreigner," he still feels that it cannot make amends for our native plants, the growth of our native soil, introduced by no human agency, placed in their appointed spot by the Almighty will, flourishing for long years the "flowers of the waste," and

dying, at the approach of cultivation, like the Red Indian disappearing from his hunting-grounds before the advancing footsteps of the white man. But if the destruction of the natural vegetation of a country be a mournful sight to a botanist, no less is the re-appearance of vegetation over the ruined habitation of man a melancholy and interesting spectacle to all. The ivy, the same plant that hangs and spreads itself over the wildest cliffs, covers and supports the ruined walls with its evergreen mantle. On the proudest edifices of bygone days we see the lichens appearing :

"Those living stains which Nature's hand alone,
Profuse of life, pours forth upon the stone;
For ever growing where the common eye
Can but the bare and rocky bed descry.
These all increase, till in unnoticed years
The stony tower as grey with age appears,
With coats of vegetation thinly spread,
Coat above coat, the living on the dead;
These then dissolve to dust, and make away
For bolder foliage; nursed by their decay,
The long-enduring Ferns in time will all
Die, and depose their dust upon the wall-
Where the winged seed will rest, till many a flower
Shows Flora's triumph on the falling tower."

VOL. VI., 1855, PART II.

D

CRABBE,

On the Geological Formations in the
Brighbourhood of Dunster.

BY REV. W. ARTHUR JONES, M.A.

LL the lofty hills and high land in this district, in

ALL

cluding Dunkery Beacon, the north hill at Minehead, Grabhurst Hill, and the Croydon range, with the outlying Quantocks, belong to a geological formation, which for a long time was known as the Grauwacke, but is now more frequently called the Devonian series. On the declivities and near the base of these hills, we find another series of rocks of more recent origin, which, while they skirt the upheaved masses of the older formation, in many places rest upon them in such a manner as clearly to prove that they were deposited after and upon the older sedimentary formations. These rocks are known as the red-sandstone series, which, for the most part, compose the lower hills, and supply the characteristic red marls of the lowlands. The red-sandstone, in its turn, is succeeded by later formations. Hence we find the lias overlying the red-sandstone along the coast of the Bristol Channel, and

occurring in such circumstances as to leave no doubt of the order in point of time in which they succeeded each other. And in the marsh land, extending from Dunster to Minehead on the one hand, and to Blue Anchor on the other, we have the comparatively very recent alluvial deposit, covering over the remains of primeval forests, portions of the foliage and timber of which are exposed to view every day at low water, between Minehead harbour and the Warren point.

These geological formations severally, and as associated together, present features of great interest, and in a striking manner illustrate and confirm the theories of the geologist respecting the physical history of the world. It is not, however, my intention to enter upon the great problems connected with some of the phenomena which this neighbourhood presents; but rather to seize on the more striking features, and to endeavour to present them so associated and connected together that we may be able in some measure to understand the ground over which we travel in our excursions, and with more pleasure to contemplate the physical characteristics of the country, and the vast and mighty agencies by which, through countless ages, these stupendous effects have been produced.

First, then, in point of time, we come to the Grauwacke, or Devonian series, embracing sedimentary rocks differing from each other in some particulars, yet, on the whole, presenting common features which enable the close observer, without hesitation, to refer them to the same great epoch. The term sedimentary is applied to this series from the undoubted evidence the rock itself affords of its being the result of the gradual settling of the sandy and mineral matter held in suspension by the troubled waters of that period. When, therefore, we enquire into

the origin of these lofty hills, the revelations of geological science refer us to the time when the now upheaved heights of Dunkery, and Brendon, and Quantock, formed the seabeds, over which rolled the waves and billows of a boister ous ocean, and into and upon which were precipitated from the vast laboratory which Almighty power alone could form, and Infinite Wisdom alone direct, the metals and minerals which are dispersed among them. The various beds of rock included in this series present varying features, according to the varying circumstances in which the deposits occurred. The direction and force of different currents, together with the varying character of the rocks the detrital matter of which they held in suspension, would necessarily affect the character of the deposit in different localities. Hence we find the rocks of this series more or less calcareous, more or less sandy; in some places altogether devoid of any traces of organic remains, in others crowded with fragments of corals and of encrinites. The Museum of the Society contains a variety of organic remains found in strata belonging to this series on the Quantock Hills. The honour and merit of the discovery (which is comparatively recent) belong to Mr. Pring, of Taunton, to whom the Society is indebted for many beautiful specimens, and valuable services in the geological department. But while a few beds abound with remains of encrinites and corals, the great mass would seem to be devoil of them. From this we are led to infer that forms of organic life did not abound in the seas of that period; or if they did, that they were for the most part exposed to such destroying agencies as to prevent their being preserved in the deposits then formed.

It is interesting, however, to observe traces of the analogies which prevail between the seas of that remote