456 MRS. E. M. REID ON А METHOD OF 
This is a very large number of specimens to be derived from so very 
small а sample of peat. It is partly due to the richness of the deposit, 
but largely also to the completeness with which it was disintegrated and 
the ease with whieh all the individual constituents couid be examined. 
And it would seem that by working peats in bulk by this method, an 
enormous supply of material for the study of their natural history may 
easily be obtained. Indeed, it would appear that the complete study of 
peat deposits would be limited rather by the great amount of material 
available, and the consequent great length of time required to work through 
it, than by the difficulty, hitherto so frequently felt, of treating peat so as 
to obtain any material at all. 
Further, what is true of any other kind of deposit is true of peat, that 
if we are to gain an accurate knowledge of the flora contained in it, some 
such method of intimate examination is absolutely necessary. For it is 
not only the often recurring species, which formed the mass of vegetation 
growing on the spot, that we have to take into account. Peat, like all 
other deposits, contains over and above such vegetation, seeds of plants 
which have been carried into it by wind and other agencies, and except 
by such a minute inspection as we have been enabled to make, these chance 
comers would almost inevitably remain undiscovered. But it is frequently 
these very seeds which are the most interesting, and have most to tell 
us about the climate and physical conditions of the time. We have ап 
instance of this in the present case, where the wind-borne birch-seed tells, 
that though the peat was laid down in a swamp, hard by there was drier 
ground where the birch-tree grew. That is, the swamp conditions were local, 
not general, and local conditions, not climate, must account for the nature 
of the vegetation. 
The result of the experiment with this swamp peat was so encouraging 
that I was desirous still further to test the efficacy of the method, and at 
Mr. Reid’s suggestion tried what could be done with the Eocene lignite 
of Bovey Tracey. This material, of which a sample is exhibited, is not 
а true peat, but is probably a reconstructed vegetable mould of tropical 
or sub-tropical formation, It is formed of decayed wood and other vegetable 
matter, together with a few seeds and a great quantity of structureless 
humus. The bulk of the material bears evidence of having been much 
decayed before its deposition. It is extremely hard and close-grained, and 
is burnt as lignite. I boiled a very small sample of this material for three 
hours with double its weight of dehydrated soda. The result was en- 
couraging so far, that at the end of the time the water was dyed a deep 
brown, but the peat was not disintegrated. Next day I boiled it for 
twelve hours, the day after for ten hours, and the day following for eight 
hours, taking it off oecasionally to examine what effect the treatment was 
having, to pick out any specimens which had become free and clean, and 
