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abundant, soft, golden scales. Further-
more, at the time of our visit, 'filix-
mas ' fronds were already fully unfurled,
whereas those of 'borreri' still had their
bishop's croziers furled at the apices of
the fronds. The pinnules of 'borreri',
squared-off at the ends compared with the
rounded apices of ' filix-mas' , serve as
another distinguishing character.
On the southern margin of the wood, a slow
worm was found in the leaf litter, and on
crossing the east-west stream in a wet
plateau area dominated by alder, an extra-
ordinarily tame nightingale sang its heart
out, perched but a few yards away in full
view. Striking east through the southern
part of the wood, a magnificent, dense
spread of bluebells, stretching into the
distance under the open canopy in the warm
sunshine, splashed here and there with the
rich yellow of Archangel, was perhaps the
biggest reward of the day. Two other nice
finds in this area were Adoxa (Town-hall
Clock), and Corydalis claviculata (Climbing
Fumitory).
The flora of the alder carr was disappointing,
but on coming upon the stream again on the
eastern side of the wood, two large colonies
of Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage made up
for it, and the uncommon liverwort Solenostoma
crenulata in a muddy rut along the central
ride, with its neat oval leaves, was another
new bryophyte record for the wood.
On returning to the church, exploration of
the two ponds nearby revealed that one was
still extensively polluted with dumped