The number of accepted species for the county is no less than 1,412 - for Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, and Surrey combined it is 1,552. Casual aliens number 250. The county has always been noted for its botanists. Turner in 1568 started with two records, and since his day there has been almost constant progress.

From a botanist's point of view, the most interesting regions are the Downs and the sea-coast, each of which has a great variety of plant life. The least productive regions are the Weald and the Forest Ridges. A feature of special interest is the change wrought in the flora by urban development, particularly in the modification of natural drainage and in the growth of the bungalow settlements on the beaches.

The West Rother region has produced many changes of interest, due to the widespread erosion of the coast. The Arun division has a wider range in the soil mantle than any other division in the county. A noteworthy feature is the Amberley Wild (Weald) Brooks, a wet waste in which there has been a long succession of wet-loving plants, perhaps continuous, says Colonel Wolley-Dod, from primeval ages.

 

Changes made by recent urban growth are well exhibited in the Adur division. The Ouse basin contains Sheffield Park, near Fletching, remarkable for its fine trees. In the Cuckmere division is the only recorded example of 'Carex remota x divulsa'. In the East Rother division, a strange feature of the flora of Mayfield, it is pointed out, is the absence or at least rarity of species usually common elsewhere.

 

The Medway division has perhaps suffered less from human interference than any other. It is convenient to mention here that herbaria of Sussex plants may be seen at Bexhill, Brighton, Chichester, Lewes, and Tunbridge Wells museums, and at Eastbourne and Hastings libraries. There is also a Sussex herbarium in the British Museum (Natural History). The following is a frankly selective list of some of the rarer and more remarkable plants of Sussex, arranged for convenience under the divisions adopted above.

 

 

Forest Ridge District.

 

'The spiked rampion (Phyteuma spicatum)', perhaps the only British plant peculiar to Sussex, grows in the country between Waldron and Mayfield. Other comparatively rare plants are the Cornish money-wort (Sibtl~orpia europaea)', found near Heathfield; the slender ' cicendia (Cicendia filiformis)' in St. Leonards Forest; the ' wood forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)' in a wood near Warnham;' wood fescue grass (Fesruca sylvatica)' near Fairlight; and mountain sedge (Carex montana)' at Heathfield and Eridge.

 

The Wealden heaths, commons, and bogs, seem to have few floral peculiarities. On the Lower Greensand may occasionally be met two of the less common species of 'bellflower (Campanula rapunculus and patula)', both very pretty flowers.

The Downs. 

Here the rarest plants seem to be the ' mountain stone parsley (Seseli libanotis)', the round-headed ' centaury (Erythvaea capitata)', and, in sheltered spots, the ' musk-thistle (Carduus nutans)'. Many of the rare members of the orchis family are found, but they are not so distinctive as in Kent. The great and lesser 'butterfly', the ' tway-blade', 'bird's-nest', and the ' bee' are fairly common; the 'fly', the 'spider', and the ' green man' are rarer. (The small ' white orchid (Habenaria albida)' has been found in Ashdown Forest.)

 

Other scarce plants found on the chalk are the ' stinking hellebore (Helleborusfoeiidus); stinking hawk's beard (Crepis foeiida)', found near Shoreham: narrow-leaved ' hare's ear (Bupleurum aristatum)'; and the upright ' fly honeysuckle (Lonicern xylosteum)', indigenous near Arundel.

 

The most beautiful flower on the chalk is the dark blue round-headed ' rampion (Phyteuma orbiculare)', locally called the 'Pride of Sussex'.

 

Marsh-lands and river banks.

 

The very rare ' Isnardia palustris' was discovered in an old hammer-pond at Buxted, but may now be extinct in Sussex, though a search for it is always worth the botanist's trouble. European ' cut grass (Leersia oryzoides)' is found on the banks of the Arun and Adur. Four rare kinds of sedge are found near the same two rivers, while two rare ' bulrushes (Scirpus carinatus and triqueter)' grow apparently only on two English rivers, the Thames and the Arun.

 

Sea-coast.

This region always provides good botanizing. In Thorney was found the very rare annual ' beard-grass (Polypogon monspeliensis)': a search in the aerodrome area has not revealed it again. The proliferous ' pink (Dianlhus prolifer)' grows between Selsey, Hayling, and Pagham. A specimen of the very rare ' sea knot-grass (Polygonum maritimum)' was once discovered at Bognor.

 

Near Shoreham harbour flourish various 'vetches', particularly the ' rough-podded yellow vetch (Vicia lutea)', and the ' starry-headed trefojl (Trifolium stellatum)'; the latter has also been found on the Crumbles at Eastbourne. The ' small-flowered mallow (Malva borealis)' has been observed near Bexhill, and on Camber Sands are found the ' little bur medick (Medicago minima)', the ' sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides)' and ' Festuca ambigua'. The shingle beaches of Pevensey should be explored.

 

Of rare ferns the ' beech-fern (Polypodium phegopteris)' is found here and there on the Forest Ridge, and the ' limestone fern' on one spot only of the Downs. The ' brittle bladderfern (Cystopteris fragilis)' grows near Harting. The rare ' Osmunda regalis' is found in several places. The ' sea spleenwort (Asplenirrm marinum)' used to grow on the Hastings rocks but is now probably extinct.

 

Distribution of Trees.

 

 

Sussex is a very well-wooded county, and this forms one of its principal charms. Two regions are exceptions. The Down country East of the Arun is almost treeless and, in the flat country along the coast, trees are scarce. The two great forest districts are;

 

(1) the W. part of the Forest Ridge, where St. Leonards, Tilgate, and Worth forests almost adjoin;

 

(2) the Down country W. of the Arun, where the relatively modern beechwoods of Charlton, Goodwood, Chilgrove, and Wool Lavington lie close together.

 

In addition both the sandstone districts abound in woods, in which the fir, beech, and birch, are the principal trees. The Wealden Clay district, though more open, has many large woods in which the oak predominates, and the shaves or shaws left along the sides of the enclosures form nurseries for timber. Among individual trees, the remarkable number of fine yews in the churchyards is worth notice.

 

In past times, the woodlands supplied not only builders and shipwrights but also tanners with bark and salt-makers with fuel.

 

 

 

 

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