suppose that trees can be acclimatized-that is accustomed to a colder climate than is natural to them. Every species of plant bears a certain range of temperature, but it is impossible to extend that range. Many plants at first placed in greenhouses because they were the natives of warmer regions, have done well in the open air, and hence have been cited as instances of successful acclimatisation; the truth being that they could bear a lower temperature and a greater range of temperature than was at first supposed, and it chanced that the climate of the locality into which they were introduced suited them perfectly. The Aucuba Japonica is an instance in point, so is the Aponogeton Distachyum, an aquatic from the Cape, which thrives in the open air in the bleak and biting climate of Edinburgh; so, too, with the Araucaria imbricata from Chili, and some Nepaulese and Japanese plants, but the potato, the dahlia, the heliotrope, and the Marvel of Peru are as sensitive to frost as on the day of their first introduction into England, nor is the chrysanthemum one whit better able to bear frost than when first removed from its far distant southern home. Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club. LADIES' DAY, TUESDAY, JULY 23RD. 1895. VISIT TO THE CROWN WOODS AT HIGHMEADOW, STAUNTON ON Tuesday, July 23rd, the Royal Forest of Dean was visited by the Club under the most favourable circumstances: the electrical disturbances of previous days had cleared the atmosphere, the rain had revived parched vegetation and laid the dust; overhead it was fine, with clouds tempering the July sun. It was the ladies' day, and a most attractive programme had been drawn out by Mr. Philip Baylis, Her Majesty's Deputy Surveyor of the Royal Forest. The Journeying from Hereford in special carriages, the large party, more than one hundred in number, reached Symond's Yat about eleven o'clock. Although the ascent of Symond's Yat was not in the programme of the day, the following few remarks about its elevation and the boundary line between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire may be considered useful. The Ordnance Survey map gives a contour of 500 feet on the platform of Symond's Yat Rocks, which is to be found on the six inches to one mile map, Herefordshire sheet 54 S.W., Monmouthshire part of sheet 9, Gloucestershire part of sheet 30. On page 32 of A Week's Holiday in the Forest of Dean," we are told that the Yat is 502 feet above sea level; we may rest assured that this record is given with the accuracy, intelligence, and attention to details, which characterize every page of this little book. boundary lines here between the three adjacent counties are perplexing. platform on the summit of Symond's Yat Rocks is in Gloucestershire. boundary line from Lydbrook to the base of Symond's Yat is the middle of the river, until arrival at a boundary stone not visible in a flooded state of the river, whence the boundary verges southwards, and cutting off a promontory proceeds northwards for three hundred yards, thence returns down to the river south of the Saracen's Head public-house, a hundred yards above Symond's Yat Railway Station. The entomologist, botanist, or geologist, who desires to fix the locality of his finds, should purchase the other three contiguous Ordnance maps, namely, Herefordshire sheet 54 N.E., Gloucestershire part of sheets 23, 30, and 31; Herefordshire sheet 54 N. W., Monmouthshire part of sheet 9; and Herefordshire sheet 54 S. E., Gloucestershire part of sheets 30 and 31. The The To the lover of nature, to the geologist, and student of physiography, the great gorge near Symond's Yat Railway Station, in which flows the river Wye, furnishes an interminable series of lessons in connection with the dislocations of the crust of the earth, the powerful action of water in denudation, and in deepening the channel, leaving the dark craggy cliffs of Mountain Limestone clothed with rich foliage, while the outlying rocks called the Long Stone and the Bowlers Rocks having resisted the powers of denudation stand out like massive needles, inaccessible to man, the annual nesting place of ravens until they were scared away about twenty years ago by the blasting operations of the tunnel and the railway embankment. The members, on their arrival at Symond's Yat Station, were met by Mr. Henry Smith, woodman of the Mailscot district; also by Messrs. Jones and Brown, woodmen of other districts in the Crown Woods of Highmeadow, who had been deputed by Her Majesty's Deputy Surveyor of Dean Forest (Mr. Philip Baylis) to conduct the party through the first part of their route. The first mile walk along the side of the railway, so far as The Slaughter" was enjoyed by all, especially by the botanists, who gathered Atropa belladonna in fruit, Hypericum montanum, besides other more common species, Campanula trachelium and latifolia, Dipsacus pilosus, Erica tetralix, &c. Several grasses were also found, notably Festuca sylvatica, and Hordeum sylvaticum. The entomologists found themselves in a paradise of insect life, for have we not here, in plenty during some seasons, the purple emperor, Apatura iris, which holds the highest rank amongst English butterflies, and also occurring near the river the very local hairstreak Thecla w-album, and the large fritillaries in legions! Several specimens of the silverwashed Argynnis paphia were observed, a family which in some years occurs in multitudes. The best capture of the day was a fine specimen of the beautiful geometer, the large emerald Geometra papilionaria, by no means a common insect, which was captured in the Dean Forest, near the Speech House. Time did not permit a visit to the stalactite caves in Lady Park Wood about half a mile further, so well kept in order by Mr. Thomas Davis, proprietor of the Symond's Yat refreshment house, and so well deserving a visit under proper guidance, which is imperative, since a stranger may easily get bewildered with the maze of ramifying passages before he reaches a large domed chamber, roofed with stalactites and floored with stalagmites. The view, looking down the river from the base below these caves, is charming, with the rocks called the Seven Sisters on the opposite side, in Lord's Wood on the Great Doward. From the name "The Slaughter," given to this locality, it has been suggested that it might have been the scene of a conflict between Ostorius Scapula and the British Chief Caractacus. In the absence of any written chronicle, it must be left to the imagination to picture Ostorius's hosts fording the river from the ford below the new weir, and endeavouring to force Caractacus by the Great Doward from his encampment on the little Doward (see Transactions 1884, page 213), but, failing in the attempt, being driven across the river, pursued, and slaughtered in the place which bears the name. This, however, is pure conjecture. The tongue of rocks projecting like a promontory to form the eminence called Symonds Yat Rocks was undoubtedly defended by a line of earthworks extending from rock to rock. Some observers can distinguish four or even five of these lines of defence. Of these the innermost is the highest, and apparently some masonry was built as a parapet on or within the rampart. At its eastern extremity near the road leading to the rocks, after passing the last cottage, masonry, set in cement, is at the present day to be seen in situ. We have no historical record of the date of these entrenchments. They may date from the times of King Offa, 755 to 794, or from the subsequent numerous plundering expeditions of the Danes in the time of King Alfred in the latter part of the ninth century, or even from more recent times. Entering the woods from "The Slaughter," for the one mile walk to the Double View, the footpath conducts southwards along the boundary line between Gloucestershire on the left and Monmouthshire on the right, for about three hundred yards, until on the right a stone boundary marked S. M. (Staunton Manor) forms the boundary line for half a mile to Bellman's Oak in a S. W. by W. direction, thence again southwards. We have not been able to ascertain the origin of the name "Bellman's Oak." In the present time a young oak tree supplants the original. The Near Hearkening Rock is situated about three hundred yards west of Bellman's Oak, and about a hundred yards further west is the Suck Stone. The Far Hearkening Rock is situated three quarters of a mile further down the hill, opposite the Little Doward. These are nothing more than masses of Old Red Conglomerate Sandstone, and were trysting places where, in the days of deer hunting, hunters were accustomed to assemble in order to determine from their sounds in which direction the dogs were hunting. The pathway up the wood to the Double View is fairly direct, and in a southerly direction with Mailscot Wood on the left or east, Lady Park Wood or Redding Enclosure on the right or west. Any turn to the left might bring the traveller to Highmeadow Colliery directly east, or to Braceland, at present tenanted by C. C. Hough, Esq., in the south-east. About half-way up the hill the pathway crosses a small cave. A specimen of Pyrus aria was brought from Symonds Yat; but what proved more interesting was a specimen of a Pyrus cut by Mr. Henry Smith from a tree about twenty-five feet high on the verge of the cliff near where the little boy fell down a few weeks ago (now alive and progressing towards recovery from two broken legs) in Mr. Machen's private grounds, perhaps sixty yards or more from the entrance gate. This is Pyrus rotundifolia (Bechstein), named Pyrus latifolia (Boswell Syme) in all but the last edition (ninth) of the London Catalogue. The Rev. Augustin Ley informs us that from the Symonds Yat locality it was first named as a British plant. A few fine shrubs of the Spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus) were met with. Mrs. Ley informs us that the superiority of the French crayons is due to their manufacture from the charcoal of this shrub. Paris quadrifolia was found in seed; Viburnum, both opulus, the guelder rose with lobed leaves, and lantana, the way-faring tree with heart-shaped leaf, downy beneath, were found, and a glorious profusion of the brilliant Epilobium angustifolium, or French willow, with purplish-red blossoms, heralded the approach to the open platform on the summit, which thirty years ago was called the pleasure ground, and which is now known as The Double View. The six-inch Ordnance Map gives an elevation of 697 feet on the railway at The Slaughter, and an elevation of 737.5 feet at The Double View, thus making a gradual ascent of 668 feet in this one mile of sylvan walk. The following distant hills were visible from the Double View :-Commencing on the right, the Malvern Hills, Titterstone Clee, Brown Clee, Garway, and Graig, the whole range of the Black Mountains, with the top of Pen-y-Gadr Vawr beyond them. Southwards the view is obstructed by the neighbouring heights. From the Double View a footpath across a field leads to Staunton village. The road to the Buckstone is indicated by two masses of the Old Red Conglomerate Sandstone on the left hand side, just beyond the last house in the village; it is necessary to leave these two masses on your right, thence to pass through the wicket of the enclosure, and keep alongside the wall all the way until arrival at the Buckstone on the top of the hill. The elevation is not given in the six inch Ordnance map: but in an excellent map, dated 1867, in the Crown office, Whitemead Park, it is given as 891 feet above the water in Lydney Basin. It is advisable to ascertain how this datum "above the water in Lydney Basin" compares with that employed in the Ordnance Survey maps, namely, the approximate mean water at Liverpool. In the observations made during the organization of the Ordnance Survey it was found that mean tide levels differed considerably at the various stations, the extreme difference amounting to more than 30 inches. The same map in the Crown offices gives the altitude of Symonds Yat 479 feet. The six-inch Ordnance map has a contour of 500 feet upon the extreme summit of Symonds Yat rocks. From the platform of rocks the ground first descends, thence ascends slightly southwards on the road to Coleford, until at the distance of about one-third of a mile, where a bench-mark elevation of 485 feet is given. From the above-referred-to Map in the Crown Office, dated 1867, we gather the following information, interesting to those who study the floods of the Wye :Summer level taken at the ferry at Symonds Yat, 31 feet; flood level, 1852, 49 feet; thus indicating a rise of 18 feet at that locality for this flood of the river Wye in 1852. Reference to our transactions 1891, p. 235, gives 18 feet 4 inches as the height of flood at Wye Bridge, Hereford, on February 6th, 1852. The following objects are seen from the Buckstone :-Beginning with the foreground, the eye rests upon a large proportion of the great expanse of over 20,000 acres of timber in the Forest of Dean proper and in the High Meadow Woods. The neighbouring district is High Meadow, sold by Henry Hall, 4th Viscount Gage, to the Government of George III. in 1817, for £155,863 3s. 2d. This property was offered to the Duke of Wellington, but it is said that he preferred Strathfieldsaye to being daily reminded, in such a hilly district as this, of hardships encountered in the Pyrenees. The massive tower of Newland Church is visible in the Valley below, and St. Briavels' Church and tower, with the Cotteswold Hills, and Hills of Somersetshire in the extreme distance. Ruardean Hill, on which there is a triangulation survey altitude of 9315 feet, about one mile distant from the village of the same name with conspicuous church spire, is the highest hill in the Forest of Dean proper, the next highest altitude being 914.2 at Pingry Tump, Mitcheldean Meend, which is strictly within the limits of the |