On the Chalk Hills
Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone. By J. E. Lousley. (Collins. The New Naturalist Series. 2 is.) Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone. By J. E. Lousley. (Collins. The New Naturalist Series. 2 is.)
MOST botanists have their ecological preferences, and Mr. Lousley is a self-confessed and impenitent addict of the chalk. It is an addiction which I happen to share—probably because, like Mr. Lousley himself, I derived my earliest botanical thrills from the chalk-hill flora of the home-counties. Unlike most addicts, however, Mr. Lousley has systematised his enthosiasm, and, though he Modestly describes himself as an "amateur," is in fact a recognised, authority on the subject, and one of our leading" field-botanists. This new book consists of a complete regional survey of the chalk and limestone areas of the British Isles (including Eire): we are shown the contrasting floras of the North and South Downs, the Chilterns, the Mendips, the Jurassic outcrops of the Cotswolds, the limestones of Yorkshire, Scotland and the rest ; Mr. Lousley is an • excellent guide—erudite and conscientious, but not over-solemn, and always ready to linger, with an affectionate relish, over his special favourites, such as the lovely Pastille Flower, the rare Field Fleawort or some of the scarcer orchids. The book is illustrated with 72 photographs, 48 of them in colour: -the latter are, I think, about as good as colour-photographs of flowers ever can be—the problem of successfully reproducing reds and, purples still seems insoluble, but where these colours do not occur the results are admirable (e.g., the excellent photograph of the Early Spider Orchid, by Mr. Robert Atkinson).
As a field-botanist, Mr. Lousley's main concern is with ecology and distribution—an aspect of botanical science which has tended, till .recently, to be somewhat neglected ; and this book, while abundantly fascinating to the mere " amateur " (for• whom it is primarily' intended), deserves, none the less, to be regarded as a serious contribution to ecological literature. Of special interest are the numerous and carefully-designed maps, showing not only geo- logical formations, but also the distribution of some of the rarer plants—e.g., Round-headed Rampion, purple Gromwell and Spring Gentian. Not the least of Mr. Lousley's claims to fame, by the way, is his rediscovery (in 1947) of Orchis Militaris, the Military Orchid, long believed to be extinct in this country. As a warning to the curious, I should add that he does not so much as hint at the locality in this book, beyond a note to the effect that it was found in "Southern England." But let Mr. Lousley beware—some of us have a hunch about its approximate whereabouts, and I know Of at least one botanist (an unscrupulous fellow) who firmly intends, next spring, to shadow Mr. Lousley (heavily disguised, of course, and with his vasculum concealed in a picnic-basket) to the place in question—which may, I am told, be approached either by Green
Line coach or by train from Paddington.. JOCELYN BROOKS.
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