222 MR. C. REID AND ELEANOR M. REID ON 
not from the alluvium of the main river. These small stream-channels 
necessarily yield in the main the plants that lived in them, or grew on the 
adjoining wet meadows, or in moist woods not far away. A few winged 
seeds dropped in and others were brought by birds ; but though the dry-soil 
element is gradually being discovered, it is only represented by perhaps one 
seed out of a hundred, the bulk of the specimens belonging to a few aquatic 
genera. This scarcity of dry-soil plants makes our pre-Glacial list at present 
a poor representation of the ancient British flora. We can only compare it 
with the plants now living in or around a Norfolk Broad and those that 
accidentally drift in. 
Perhaps the first thing to strike a botanist on examining our list will be, 
how little the flora has altered in the many thousand. years that have elapsed 
and during the various climatic changes that have intervened. It was driven 
out by the cold of the Glacial Epoch and came back little altered. 
But closer study somewhat modifies these conclusions, for а good many 
exotie species occur, and it must be remembered that several if not most of 
the incerte sedis will almost certainly be exotic also. The non-British forms 
now recorded are Ranunculus nemorosus, two other species of Ranunculus, 
one or perhaps two water-lilies, Муресоит procumbens, Trapa natans, two 
species of Viburnum ?, two labiates, a second species of alder, Picea ewcelsa, 
and Najas minor. These give a decidedly peculiar appearance to the flora. 
It is not very safe to deal with negative evidenee, but there is another 
peculiarity in this fossil flora that only those who have handled a large 
amount of material will notice. A number of our plants have seeds and 
fruits so soft or decaying so readily that they seem never to be preserved 
in the fossil state. Such are Ranunculus Ficaria, most of the crucifers, 
leguminose, and many umbellifers and grasses ; these we cannot expect to 
find save under very exceptional conditions. Certain of our common 
meadow and woodland plants, whieh we know, from the examination of 
more modern deposits, have seeds whieh preserve perfectly and abundantly, 
are, on the other hand, still missing in our pre-Glacial list. — Disregarding 
plants which we find in deposits of Roman date, but no earlier, for these may 
be weeds of cultivation, we notice the absence of Ranunculus acris, №. bulbosus, 
Lychnis Flos-cuculi, Potentilla palustris, Sambucus nigra, Taracacum, Sonchus, 
Lamium. The hazel, so abundant in our Neolithic submerged forests, is only 
represented in the Cromer Forest-bed by a few nuts, usually stunted and 
distorted in growth. 
The pre-Glacial plants suggest climatic conditions almost identical with 
those now existing, though slightly warmer. This difference, however, may 
be largely due to the connection of Britain with the Continent while the 
plant-bed was forming. The influence of altered geographical conditions on 
our living fauna and flora has already been discussed (op. cit.) and need not 
be further commented on. Nothing in the present revision has tended to 
modify the conciusions already arrived at, except that the southern element 
