On the Origin and Distribution of the British Flora. 83
River Ter. The Ter rises near Felstead, flows on to Fairstead,
where it receives a stream from Black Notley, and to Terling,
to which it gives a name, its course to its affluence being
twelve miles. The entire length of the Chelmer to Maldon
is stated by Gibson, probably accurately, as thirty-four, by
the Survey as twenty-nine, miles. The estuary of the
Blackwater receives four principal streams, two from the
south from Woodham Mortimer and Haseleigh, and on the
north one from the Tothams and the Lime Brook from the
Tolleshunts.
The district south of the high road from Snoreham to
Bradwell, drained by rivulets running to Danesey Flats,
I consider as part of the valley of the Crouch; but the
twenty-four square miles north of the river-mouth, classed
apart by the Survey as "small streams," including Virley
and Salcot Marsh, I group in the Blackwater Basin. Mersea
Island falls most naturally, perhaps, into the Colne district.
The Colne Basin includes 407 square miles, and the length
of the river—which rises near Bumpstead and Birdbrook, and
passes E.S.E. by Yeldham, Hedingham, and Halstead, to
Colchester and Mersea Island—is thirty-six miles, according
to Gibson, and, probably in fact, but only twenty-four
according to the Survey. At Colne Engaine it receives, on
its south or right bank, a stream from Weathersfield and
Gorsfield, and lower down, on its left bank, one from
Pebmarsh. Below Greenstead an affluent enters it from
Several Hall, and above Fingrinhoe, opposite Wivenhoe, it
receives the Roman River. This stream rises between Earl's
Colne and Great Tey, and is first known as Tey Brook ; flows
past Aldham, where it is called Aldham Brook, to Stanway,
below which it bears the name of Roman River, and near
Abberton receives the Layer Brook from above Layer Marney.
The fifty-three square miles between Colchester and Walton
mapped by the Survey as drained by such streams as those
from Bromley and Bentley, and the Holland Creek, I place
in the Colne sub-province; but the neighbourhood of Oakley
and Wicks belongs to the Stour drainage.
This latter river rises in the south-west of Suffolk, on the