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had heard around the fireside from modest Mary and her sister Ruth. Mary also wrote a detailed report with personal anecdotes on the history of the two field clubs which was published in 2003. Mary was introduced to the plants of the Oswestry area by her family and in her book ‘An Oswestry Childhood’ recalls in the early 1920s pestering an aunt for a much coveted rubber ball. Instead, the resourceful aunt took Mary to pick bunches of cowslips (Primula veris) to make a ‘tostie ball’ constructed along the lines of a pom-pom for a woollen hat. Mary recalled being most unimpressed with this inferior toy at the time, but realised later how much more precious it would be if she could again find enough cowslips around Oswestry to make a ‘tostie ball.’ Mary was not primarily a botanist, but as one of the old school of general naturalists, she had a broad knowledge of wild plants, their uses, and their habitats. She actively recorded plants both for the Shropshire Flora and the Montgomeryshire Flora. Few naturalists knew the Oswestry area better and she collected records from classic botanical sites in the locality, including Llynclys Common, where she found Adder's-tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum and Moonwort Botrychium lunaria in the 1970s where they remain to this day. Alas, her record of Dyer's Greenweed Genista tinctoria has not recently been seen on Llynclys Hill, but is worth looking out for. Another probable loss is Grass-of-Parnassus Parnassia palustris recorded in wetland referred to as “Dolgoch Bog” in 1929 and 1945. She recorded Sweet Cicely Myrrhis odorata in a number of places around Oswestry (where it still occurs) and wrote about it in Flora Britannica. She told stories in the Border Counties Advertizer of unusual aliens, such as Caper Spurge Euphorbia lathyris appearing in the Oswestry area and the readers would respond with more records. Mary was familiar with the many sites for Yellow Figwort Scrophularia vernalis in the area, which some locals believe was introduced by local botanist Edward Llwyd (aka Lhuyd) or his forebears. Mary co-ordinated the ten kilometre square SJ12 (Tanat Valley) for the Montgomeryshire Flora and contributed to the text of the book. Mary will be remembered not only for her great knowledge and dedication to work, but also for her ready smile, kindness, calmness, modesty, lively interest in people, quick and gentle humour and her prodigious memory - which made her a wonderful story teller. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Margaret Deadman, Elizabeth Roberts and Peter Williams for their contributions to this article and for their help with proof reading. References Sinker, C.A., Packham, J.R., Trueman, I.C., Oswald, P.H., Perring, F.H. & Prestwood, W.V. 1985. Ecological Flora of the Shropshire Region. Shropshire Trust for Nature Conservation, Shrewsbury. Trueman, I C, Morton, A & Wainwright, M. 1995. The Flora of Montgomeryshire. Montgomery Field Society & Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, Welshpool. Hignett, M. (n.d.) Walks around Oswestry. Bernard Mitchell. Oswestry. Hignett, M. (n.d.) Green Walks from Oswestry. Shropshire Books, Shrewsbury. Hignett, M. (1997) An Oswestry Childhood. Shropshire Books, Shrewsbury. Hignett, M. (1999) School Days in Welshpool. WPG Ltd., Shropshire. 11
Bryophytes at Shrewsbury Museum Alex Lockton As mentioned in our last newsletter, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery has some fine botanical collections, built up over the last 170 year by many of the county’s most eminent botanists. The main bryological collection is that of William Phillips Hamilton (1842-1910), which the staff at the museum have photographed and posted on their web site, www.darwincountry.org. It is possibly the world’s first virtual moss herbarium, and it is certainly an imaginative venture to present images of things as small and scruffy as dried mosses, but it seems to work. Peter Boyd, the collections manager, points out that there would be no space to display the entire herbarium in the galleries, and exposure to light for long periods would be harmful to the specimens. -- Images from the herbarium web site -- Because the collection is not indexed, and the names given are sometimes out of date, we thought it would be useful to list the entire catalogue here, putting all the information into print for the first time. The nomenclature mostly follows the recent checklist issued by the British Bryological Society (http://rbgweb2.rbge.org.uk/bbs/bbs.htm) with a few updates from the new edition of A.J.E. Smith’s Moss Flora. The main collectors are abbreviated to surname only: Richard de Gylpyn Benson (1856-1904), John Bishop Duncan (1869-1953), William Hunt Painter (1835- 1910). Bullets are used to indicate subsequent records of the same species. There are certainly some very interesting specimens here, including for instance the first British record of Cinclodotus riparius. Members may like to look out for some of these plants in the same localities. 12
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Page 3 and 4: Botanical Society News Sarah Whild
Page 5 and 6: Meetings for 2005 Sarah Whild For f
Page 7 and 8: substantial number of records. The
Page 9: many records, although it was very
Page 14 and 15: Specimens in the W.P. Hamilton coll
Page 16 and 17: Bryoerythrophyllum recurvirostrum,
Page 18 and 19: P. affine, Many-fruited Thyme-moss,
Page 20 and 21: E. schleicheri, Twist-tip Feather-m
Page 22: Rare Plants of Shropshire 3rd Editi

Shropshire Botanical Society - Botanical Society of the British Isles

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