Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/A Winter's Ramble

by John Caswell

A Winter's Ramble.

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by the Rev. John Caswell.

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I have thought that it would prove interesting to put before the readers of the Midland Naturalist, and especially those who are fond of Botany, the results of a ramble in the neighbourhood of Birmingham during the first week of the new year. Several paragraphs had appeared in the newspapers of that week, calling attention to the fact that primroses and violets were already in flower. I notice also that a correspondent (E.W.B.) in the February number of the magazine gives a list of flowers gathered from his garden on Christmas-day last. The mildness of the present winter naturally led us to expect that the winter and early spring flowers would blossom sooner than usual; and, therefore, one was not altogether surprised to hear of primroses and violets having already appeared, but the addition given by E. W. B. is one worthy of notice, as it is evidence not only of a mild winter, but of a very mild autumn also; otherwise, such flowers as roses, stocks, mignonette, &c., would not be in blossom at this season of the year, is in the nature of things they ere kill by the frosts and cold nights which usually characterise the autumn season. I therefore venture to add to the lists already given the plants I found in flower during the first week of January last. For some years I have made a ramble during that particular week, and always in the same locality, in order to note what plants were in bloom, as a record of the mildness or severity of the autumn and winter seasons, and for other reasons. Whilst in preceding years I have not found on an average more than twelve plants in flower in the district to which I limited my survey, this year I have recorded upwards of eighty British wild flowers, besides an unusually large number of garden flowers.

The following is the list:—

Caltha palustris.	Guom urbanum.	Veronica Buxbaumii.
Helleborus fetidus.	Alehemilla arvensis.	Veronica agrestis.
Capsella Bursa-pastoris.	Spergula urvensis.	Tenerium Scorodonia.
Draba verna.	Sedum reflexum.	Bullota nigra.
Cardamine hirsuta.	Chærophyllum temulentum.	Lamium album.
Barbarca vulgaris.		Lamium purpureum.
Sisymbrium officinale.	Hedera Helix.	Lamium amplexicule.
Cheiranthus Cheiri.	Galium aparine.	Primula vulgaris.
Sinapis arvensis.	Sonchus oleraceus.	Armeria maritima, (in gardens.)
Viola odorata.	Crepis virens.
Viola tricolor.	Leontodon Taraxacum.	Plantago major.
Lychnis vespertina.	Lapsana communis.	Plantago Corenepus.
Sagina procumbens.	Carnuns nutans.	Polygonum aviculare.
Stellaria media.	Senecio vulgaris.	Euphorbia Peplus.
Stellaria graminea.	Bellis perennis.	Euphorbia helioseopla.
Arenaria trinervis.	Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum.	Buxus sempervirens.
Cerastium viscosum.		Urtica urens.
Cerastium vulgatum.	Matricaria Parthenium.	Galanthus nivalis.
Geranium sanguineum.	Matricaria inodora.	Luzula campestris.
Geranium molle.	Anthemis nobilis.	Calluna vulgaris.
Geranium Robertianum.	Arbutus Unedo.	Erica cinerea.
Ulex Europæus.	Ilex aquifolium.	Spergularia rubra.
Ulex nanus.	Myosotis collina.	Daphne mezereon.
Vicia hirsuta.	Veronica hederæfolia.	Scleranthus annuns.

In addition to these, I have found several species of Rubus, Rumex, Cyperaceæ, Juncaceæ, and Grainineæ. This list will, I dare say, cause surprise to some, and perhaps doubt; but in all cases, except one or two, the specimens I gathered were very good ones, and would not have disgraced any collector's herbarium. I have not included plants found in bud, though I have taken a note of them, nor those in fruit, whose petals had evidently just fallen; but only those actually in blossom. I found them all within a few miles of Birmingham, I had not the opportunity to wander through Sutton Park, or doubtless some few others would have been added. Many of the localities where those plants were gathered are in exposed situations, and therefore one would have imagined it useless to look for them; and when we remember that in the Christmas week there had been several nights of sharp frost, and snow had fallen also, it is all the more surprising that so many different specimens should have been found. I am somewhat astonished that no list has appeared from the Southern Counties, which are so much warmer than our own Midland Counties; for, judging from a letter received from a friend in Devonshire, I should suppose that most of the summer flowers are still in bloom. He compares the Christmas week there to the Australian Christmas, and says that he gathered wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) in abundance on Christmas-day. He also mentions that two nests with eggs had been found—the one a thrush’s, the other a hedge-sparrow’s. All these facts are certainly very interesting, and point to a most exceptionally mild winter.

Of the foregoing list some are plants that flower at this season of the year, and a mild winter only accelerates their flowering; some few others may be seen in flower all the year through, but by far the greater number are, so far us the experience of the last ten years allows me to speak, strangers to the late part of the autumn, and certainly to the winter, There are several absent that I have recorded in other years, such as Ranunculus acris and R. secleratus, Stelaria uliginosa, Erica Tetralix, Lychnis diurna, Nepeta Glechoma, Senecio Ancobura, &c., and, strange to say, I did not find Potentilla Fragariastrum, a very early little flower. Neither did I find Tussilago Farfara.

The mild weather still continues, and I notice that the hazel and willow are blossoming, and the hawthorn leaves already appearing. Doubtless others of your correspondents can add a few more to the list I have given. I think the record would be worth the while, for careful observation may enable us, in course of time, to ascertain with something he accuracy in what manner and to what degree plants are affected by the weather, So far we notice that, whilst certain plants live through the autumn into the winter, under certain conditions of weather, others, that appear much hardier, do not; whilst, for example, Ranunculus acris or Centaurea nigra will be found sometimes in January, after a severe and cold autumn, yet when the latter season has been mild, and the winter also, they are not to be found.—St. Mary's College, Oscott, February 18th, 1878.

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