106 



HARDWICKE'S S C I ENC E-GOSS IP. 



cimen, with a stem 3 ft. long, at a depth of 2,115 

 fathoms, off Cape St. Vincent. 



" As usual in deep-sea work, sponges preponde- 

 rated, and the order has added several novelties, 

 chiefly referrible to the ventriculite group, the 

 Hexactinellidss. 



" Some fine new species of Aphrocallistes came up 

 along the coast of Portugal, and off St. Vincent ; 

 with many spicules and more or less mutilated 

 examples of Hyalonema, two or three species in a 

 fair condition of a species of Euplectella, with 

 spicules which I cannot distinguish from those of 

 Euplectella speciosa — the Venus Plower-basket of 

 the Philippines. The form of the two sponges is 

 the same, but our own specimens are quite soft, 

 the spicules not fused into a continuous siliceous 

 network." 



THE ARCHEOLOGY OE RAEE PLANTS. 



I SHOULD be glad to say a few words in reply 

 to Mr. Lees' onslaught on the suggestion, 

 that the Astrantia major owes its existence in the 

 wood on the Weo Edge, in Shropshire, to the 

 EiOmans, 



If Mr. Lees will kindly refer to my paper, he will 

 find that the hypothesis which I have advocated 

 was put forth merely as a conjecture, having more 

 probability than any oiher which has hitherto been 

 advanced, and that the word " inevitable," of which 

 he has availed himself so much in blackening my 

 argument and elucidating his own, was used by me 

 in referring to the connection between the Roman 

 villa at Acton Scott and the place where this plant 

 grows, and not, as he represents, to the main pro- 

 position, that the Romans brought the plant with 

 them. My words are, " The inference from this " 

 (viz. the existence in the Roman villa of Pen- 

 tamerous shells, which abound at the Weo Edge, 

 and nowhere else in the neighbourhood) "is 

 inevitable, the Roman mason who constructed 

 the hypocaust used lime brought from the Weo 

 Edge." 



Mr. Lees is, I know well, an adroit and practised 

 debater, an able and vigorous advocate of any cause 

 for which he holds a brief, but I fear his earnestness 

 has in this instance led him to do me some injustice. 

 All I pretend or ask to show is, that among any 

 amount of possible conjectures respecting the way 

 in which the plant was first introduced into this 

 neighbourhood, the most probable, that for which 

 more reasons can be assigned than any other, is the 

 theory I have advocated. 



Nor can I think that my position is much 

 damaged by the more direct arguments which 

 Mr. Lees has brought to bear on it. It is a " most 

 unlikely supposition " that the Roman workmen 

 settled " on the top of a hill," and brought the plant 

 with them ; for " workmen in general do not lice 



beside the quarry they get stone from." But afc 

 this very moment, the workmen who are employed 

 in that particular quarry do live close by it. Then 

 " the Roman who built the villa was most likely to 

 employ British workmen to quarry the stone he 

 wanted." No doubt, he may have done so, but he 

 may not ; and besides, the shells were found, not in 

 the stone used in the building, but in the mortar 

 of the hypocaust, which required more skill to 

 manufacture than was probably possessed by the 

 British workmen of the period, who may possibly 

 have been employed. 1 suppose it is on the principle 

 that any stick is good enough to beat a dog with, 

 that Mr. Lees has assailed me with such arguments. 

 Again, "It is the height of improbability that ordi- 

 nary getters of stone should have had ornamental 

 gardens close to the quarry, and nourished a flower 

 there for ornament sake." It is also " quite incredible 

 that any Roman legionary should have carried the 

 Astrantia in his impedimenta across the Alps ; " and 

 because the Romans have, as far as Mr. Lees knows, 

 left no vegetable traces of their dominion in Britain, 

 except Urtica pilulifera, and perhaps the Box and 

 Elm, it follows that no Roman ever, for some reason 

 best known to himself, could have conveyed this 

 plant with him. Now I • have always imderstood 

 that the Anacharis alsinastrum was brought to this 

 country in some undesigned way, probably adhering 

 to goods which came from America many years ago. 

 If an insignificant water-plant like this could be so 

 imported, if it is true that the homely thistle could 

 be, by nobody knows who, introduced to Australia, 

 where it has flourished to such an extent as to 

 become a public nuisance, of what avail is any 

 amount of imaginary improbabilities which my friend 

 has put together in such picturesque array, against 

 the positive evidence which has been brought 

 forward that the spot was frequented by the 

 Romans and those'employed by them, and the in- 

 ference that they may have brought with them a 

 by no means inattractive or inelegant plant ? 



Let us examine, however, the more serious 

 objections which my friend has urged. They will 

 be found to resolve themselves into this — that there 

 is nothing " to invalidate the claim of the Astrantia 

 to be a true native of Britain" ; that the plant has 

 been " noticed growing at a particular spot from 

 time immemorial." How it can have been "noticed" 

 from "time immemorial" it is not easy to understand; 

 since "nobody knows how long the Astrantia 

 has been fixed in its present position," he prefers 

 ''goingbeyond the Romanmason.and with confidence 

 ascribes its location on the Weo Edge to natural 

 causes." This "nobody knows how long" and 

 " time immemorial," and their important inferences, 

 put one in mind of those utterances of the " oldest 

 inhabitant " which are generally sufiicient to silence 

 all sceptics. What, however, is this indigenous 

 origin of plants, which is to extinguish any 



