1972 - The Vasculum

VASCULUM VOL. LVII. No. 3. 1972
EDITORlAL
17
The existence of this, the second enlarged edition, is very largely due to very generous grants that
we have received from the Royal Society, the University of Durham, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
On behalf of the Northern Naturalists' Union we thank these institutions for their timely generosity. The Royal
Society has indicated that this is a once for all grant to help· us over the transitional period while we recruit new
members to supply the extra cash. We trust that all members will note the position and act accordingly,
The next enlarged edition planned for October 1973, may seem a long way off at present, but authors should begin
thinking about it now, They know full well the time it takes to prepare a paper. We would like to be earlier in our
printting timetable, but it has not been possible this year due to several unforeseen delays. We apologise to all
subscribers.
CAREX AQUATlLlS WAHLENB. IN UPPER TEESDALE
H. G. PROCTOR
The Vicarage, Forest-in-Teesdale, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham,
Previous British Records.
Godwin (1956) states, of Carex aquatilis Wahlenberg, that "It belongs to Hulten's northern boreal circumpolar
group which is absent from central Europe, and it is described by Polunin as a very widespread circurnpolar plant
reaching the highest latitudes," Britton (1966), writing of Alaska above 70 N., states that a "Carex aquatilis -
Marsh Type" vegetation is "exceedingly common on the Coastal Plain" near Point Barrow and "is estimated to
cover about 25% of the Foothills" between the Coastal Plain and the Brooks Range, In the British Isles the species
is at the southern limit of its range, and its rarity south of Scotland may be greater than the "Atlas of the British
Flora" (Perring & WaIters, 1962) suggests, Mr. A. C. Jermy allows me to, quote from a letter in which he wrote,
"The literature records at the turn of the century for Carex aquatilis in the lower reaches of the Tweed I am sure
referred to C. acuta." It seems that suspicion also attaches to some of the Welsh and Irish records, For England,
the "Atlas" shows, beside the suspect Northumbrian (i.e. Tweed) records, only a pre-1930 record for Cumberland,
near Silloth, about the validity of which I have no Information, and a post-1930 record for Westmorland. It would
seem, therefore, that the C. aquatilis plants - the determination of which was kindly confirmed by Mr. Jerrny - that
grew in Upper Teesdale before they were destroyed during the construction of the Cow Green Reservoir, provided
at best only the third and possibly only the second reliable record for England, In Scotland reliable records, as one
would expect, are more frequent.
Relic or Refugee.
A feature of the Upper Teesdale flora which seems to appeal to the public is a possibility that some of its
constituent species are relics of the Ice Age, and not all of them refugees from the forests which advanced over
most of the country when the climate became more temperate, Carex aquatilis may have as a good a claim ,as any
to ,the apparently more glamorous ,status of "relic," but satisfactory evidence of its continuous presence in the
district since a tundra-type vegetatlon was the prevalent one is not yet to hand, There, is a doubt whether
macroscopic remains found on Cross Fell should be attributed to C. aquatilis or C. bigelowii but, whichever they
were, they were placed, though with uncertainty in pollen zone VI (Godwin, 1956, p. 254, referring to Godwin
& Clapham 1951).
It is permissible, however, to wonder whether the influence of the large lake postulated by Dwerryhouse (1902)
for the Maize Beck area at the height of the glaciation has been sufficiently taken into account in trying to assess
Upper