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71.)

20.5.50, cont.  Ringstead, Dorset, cont.

lunch on beach - looking SW. across bay to Portland Bill & east to the very fine Chalk headland, 550 ft., of White Nothe.  Very few plants of interest seen along coast, which is on the Oolite as the cliffs have been so constantly slipping that the original vegetation is nearly destroyed.  The best plants seen were Trifolium scabrum on path along top of cliffs, T. maritimum on slope to beach where we had lunch, Medicago maculata frequent, an Umbelifer we did not know, above cliff, by path (= Silaus pratensis).  On way home cut over Chalk down & saw lots of Hippocrepis comosa, Ranunculus parviflorus, Viola hirta, Arabis hirsuta (1 plant), but on the whole a very ordinary vegetation.  Carex Pairaei seen on roadside in a couple of places & Carduus nutans in one hayfield.  Along the oolite cliffs the snail Cyclostoma elegans seen in extraordinary abundance.

Tried sweeping at lunch place but net soon wet & only took the following:-

Hemiteles sp.  ♂︎, ant. 20.
H. sp.  ♂︎, ant. 23.
Chalcids  2 (1 wingless jumper).
Beetles  2.  Clytus
Green sp., rough clytra = 
Dipteron:  small, fat jumper, short wings
Bombus terrestris ♀︎ found dead on road!


72.)

Sunday 21st May 1950. 

Much warmer!  Heavy rain from dawn till 9 AM.  Very damp all day, with several prolonged thunder-storms & fine intervals but no drying & so no sweeping possible.  Between 5 & 6 PM. very hot sun & the back garden of the Bridge Hotel Dorchester full of Bees, Crabros, Odyneri, &c.
 
Left Dorchester by 10.20 train to Moreton Station & walked (Daisy, R.D. Meikle, & I) by path through estate N. of railway to Red Bridge (over ry.) seeing Formica rufa in plenty at one spot & much Erica ciliaris (not yet in flower!)  At Red Bridge on trodden edge of road & heath found Tillaea muscora - brilliant deep red in colour - together with several what in Ireland would be sea-side plants, e.g. Plantago coronopus, Erodium maritimum, & [[?Circuta]] erinum.  From Red Bridge we took the road along which Dr. Day drove us on 18th as far as Tadnoll mill & thence E. on to Winfrith Heath.  By roadside N. of mill in swamp saw Drosera rotundifolia & Narthecium;  & on roadside the large Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba).  Along roadside E. of Tadnoll was Carex goodenowii (for 1st time) C. paniculata & C. paludosa, & much of what Meikle said was Serratula tinctoria.  On reaching the heath we got heavy thunder shower & took shelter for a few minutes & and then crossed the Heath towards the highest point (163ft.) just N. of Blacknoll.  On the Heath were shallow rain pools or pans