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the advowson itself £133 6s. 8d.; for expences and fees to officials £119 11s. 11d. The Crown, for itself and its servants, obtained £112 7s. 2d. To the Bishop was paid £86 4s. 2d. The Dean and Chapter of Sarum (including a fee to 'Master W. Bradelegh,' their clerk) got £75. The Bishop's Chancellor received his 'honorarium' of £5 12s. The Court of Rome, for its Bull of Confirmation ' under the leaden seal, demanded £33 68. 8d. Sundry law expenses in London, incurred by Brother Thomas Lavynton,' who seems to have been the Town Lawyer, amounted to £20 2s. 44d. Sundry expenses at Keevil and elsewhere came to £11 15s. 2d. The total amount expended was £527 6s. 8d. (or 791 marks). Multiply this sum by 20, to bring it to its present relative value, and it will be found to represent an amount of at least £10,000.

Ecclesiastical law was tolerably dear even in the fourteenth century, when the costs of conveyance could thus reach four times the amount of the original purchase.

302

The Flora of Wiltshire:

COMPRISING THE

Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to the County;
By THOMAS BRUGES FLOWER, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., &c., &c.
No. VI. (continued).

ORDER. ACERACEE. (DE CAND.)
ACER, (LINN.) MAPLE.

Linn. Cl. xxiii. Ord. i.

Name. From acer, hard or sharp, derived from ac, (Celtic) a point. The name is supposed to be applied to this genus because the wood of some species is extremely hard, and was formerly much sought after for making pikes and lances.

1. A. campestre (Linn.) Field or Common Maple. Engl. Bot. t. 304. Reich. Icones, v. 162.

Locality. Woods and hedges, common.

Tree. Fl. May, June.

Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Frequent in all the Districts.

A small tree with deeply fissured cork-like bark and divaricated opposite branches, common in our hedge rows and thickets, especially in a chalky soil. The leaves are of an elegant palmate shape, and give a peculiar crispness to the general aspect of the foliage, and in autumn they take varied tints of yellow and orange, which have a rich effect as forming part of the landscape. The flowers grow in clusters and are of a yellowish green colour, expanding about the 6th of May, and are in full bloom by the beginning of June. The wood is compact, of a fine grain, and often very beautifully veined, hence frequently employed by turners and veneerers. All the species abound in a saccharine juice, and from several of these sugar has been extracted on a large scale, especially from the sugar maples of America. The largest maple tree in England is in the church-yard of Boldre in Hampshire, under whose canopy the

pious and ingenious Gilpin reposes amidst scenes long blest by his pastoral labours, a d illustrated by his pen and pencil.

2. A. Pseudo-platanus, (Linn.) Mock-plane, Great Maple, or Sycamore. Compounded of (pseudos) false, and (platanos) a plane tree, so called from the similarity of its leaves to those of the "Platanus orientalis," the latter is from (platus) broad, from its wide spreading branches whose shade is so much valued in the East. Engl. Bot. t. 303. Reich. Icones, 164.

Locality. Naturalized in hedges and plantations. Tree. Fl. May, June. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Introduced in all the Districts.

A handsome tree of broad ample foliage, and highly ornamental in rural scenery, vying in point of magnitude with the oak, the ash, and other trees of the first rank, it presents a grand unbroken mass of foliage contrasting well in appropriate situations, and when judiciously grouped with trees of a lighter and more airy character, affording as Gilpin expresses it "an impenetrable shade,” on which account we often see it planted close to the sunny side of the "Wiltshire dairies," to the coolness of which its presence greatly

contributes.

The spring tints of the sycamore are rich, tender, glowing and harmonious: in summer its deep green hue accords well with its grand and massive form, and the brown and dingy reds of its autumnal tints harmonise well with many of its sylvan brethren. Cowper well describes the ever varying hues of

"The Sycamore capricious in attire,

Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet

Has changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright."

This tree is generally supposed to be the sycamore mentioned in Scripture as that on which Zaccheus climbed to see Christ as he passed on his way to Jerusalem; but the sycamore of the Bible is the "Ficus Sycomorus" of Palestine, or Egyptian Fig tree, common in the East generally. Its fruit which closely resembles figs, is much esteemed, though extremely inferior to that of the true fig ("Ficus carica"), which two are the only eatable ones of 200 known species. The wood is said to be indestructible, and is therefore used for Egyptian mummy cases, which have been found in a sound state after the (supposed) lapse of 3000 years.

ORDER. GERANIACEÆ. (JUSS.)

GERANIUM, (LINN.) CRANE'S-BILL.

Linn. Cl. xvi. Ord. ii.

Name. An old Latin word derived from the Greek (geranos) a Crane, the fruit or capsule resembling the beak of that bird. 1. G. phæum, (Linn.) dusky Crane's-bill, (phaios) signifies a reddish brown. Engl. Bot. t. 322. Reich. Icones, v. 197.

In woods and thickets, very rare. P. Fl. May, June.

Locality.
Area 1. ** 4. *

South Division.

"Bot. Guide."

1. South-east District, " Alderbury," Dr. Maton. This locality is more precisely given in "Hatcher's History of Salisbury," as follows. "Just within the gate (called Eyre's Gutter Gate) of a meadow between Alderbury and Standlynch. It was first pointed out to me by Mr. Roberts, A.L.S. I have never found it in any other part of England, except in the grounds of Thomas Slingsby, Bart., at Scriven in Yorkshire. It is one of the plantæ rariores of England."

North Division.

4. North-west District, "Lanes at Conkwell," the late Mr. John Jelly. Not observed of late years in either of the above localities. May this plant not have been in both instances an escape from the flower garden ?

2. G. pratense, (Linn.) Meadow Crane's-bill. Engl. Bot. t. 404. Locality. Moist pastures, not uncommon. P. Fl. June, August. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

A handsome plant and general throughout all the Districts, well distinguished by its large purple flowers and multipartite leaves. 3. [G. sanguineum. (Linn.) This species occurs in a list of plants kindly drawn up for me by Mr. William Bartlett, for the neighbourhood of Great Bedwyn (District 5). Mr. Coward likewise reports it from Roundway (District 4). I have seen no specimens. Has there not been some mistake made ?]

4. G. Pyrenaicum, (Linn.) Mountain Crane's-bill, probably first noticed on the Pyrenees. Engl. Bot. t. 405. Reich. Icones, v. 191.

Locality. Road sides and pastures, not frequent. P. Fl. June, July. Area, 1. * 3. 4. *

South Division.

1. South-east District, "Banks at the sides of the London Road, near Salisbury," Mr. James Hussey. "Amesbury," Dr. Southby. 3. South-west District, "near Hindon," Miss Meredith. "Westbury," Mrs. Overbury.

North Division.

4. North-west District, Left hand side of the road just over the toll gate leading from Limpley Stoke to Winsley, waste places about Bradford, more especially on both sides of the road leading from the latter town to the Cemetery: between Chittoe and Wans House.

Distinguished by the very obtuse segments of its lower leaves (for the upper ones are acute and less divided), and its rather small numerous purple flowers with cleft petals.

5. G. pusillum, (Linn.) little or small-flowered Crane's-bill. Engl. Bot. t. 385. Reich. Icones, v. 190: "G. rotundifolium." (Fries.)

Locality. On a gravelly soil in cultivated and waste ground. A. Fl. June, September. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Distributed throughout all the Districts, but less frequent than "G. molle," from which the even not wrinkled capsules and distinctly lobed leaves distinguish it.

6. G. dissectum, (Linn.) jagged or cut-leaved Crane's-bill. Engl. Bot. t. 753. Reich. Icones, v. 189.

Locality. Waste places and on dry banks, also in fallow fields occasionally. A. Fl. June, August. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In all the Districts common.

Characterized by the much divided leaves and the short foot stalks of the blossoms, which as Curtis in his "Flora Londinensis " observes, thus appear as if sitting among the leaves.

7. G. columbinum, (Linn.) Doves-foot long-stalked Crane's-bill. Engl. Bot. t. 259. Reich. Icones, v. 198.

Locality. In cultivated and waste ground on chalk, not unOccasionally in newly cut copses on gravel. A. Fl. June, July. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

common.

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