CLEMEXT REIl) 147 



been an inter-glacial period when the climate was mild, as shown b}^ 

 the remains wdiich had been found of a large number of plants belong- 

 ing to a temperate flora, some of which could not have borne extreme 

 cold. In several of his subsequent papers * further evidence was 

 adduced from the examination of deposits from different parts of the 

 country in support of this theory, which he regarded as conclusively 

 proved. In 1897 he produced a paper on " Pleistocene plants from 

 Casewick, Shacklewell and Grays " f. 



In the latter year he married Miss Eleanor Mary Wynne-Edwards, 

 and it was with that lady's able assistance and co-operation that most 

 of his subsequent work at fossil plants was accomplished. Immense 

 quantities of " matrix," sometimes actually amounting to hundi-ed- 

 weights, were dealt with by their united efforts, being washed and 

 treated by various methods, and subjected to such careful examination 

 as to insure that minute, often almost microscopic, organisms, should 

 not escape notice. 



In connection with his earlier work Reid had experienced great 

 difficulty in obtaining, for comparison with the fossils, examples of 

 recent fruits and seeds, even of British plants, finding the public 

 herbaria woefully deficient in this respect. He therefore set himself 

 to form a collection, and in so doing obtained not only a much 

 extended acquaintance with om- native plants but an unequalled 

 knowledge of their seeds and fruits. His official duties necessitating 

 lengthened sojourns and exhaustive exploration of the countryside in 

 many diiferent districts in England afforded exceptional advantages, 

 and in this way he came closely in touch with such diverse floras as 

 those of East Norfolk and Cornwall, the N.E. Yorkshire Mooi's, and 

 the Channel counties. 



In order to identify the fossils, especially in the later deposits 

 dealt with, it became necessary not only to be acquainted with the 

 plants of Europe but practically of those of the world, for in some of 

 the deposits the remains were found to correspond with plants from 

 very distant parts. In this branch of the work Mrs. Keid was able to 

 afford very material assistance, working for a long time at Kew, 

 examining and making drawings of fruits and seeds etc. to supplement 

 the collection already accumulated. 



In 1898 Reid described Limnocarpus, a new (fossil) genus of 

 Naiadace8e+, and the same year contributed a paper on "Further 

 contributions to the geological history of the British Flora §," in 

 which 240 species were enumerated with a full tabulated statement 

 of the deposits and districts from which they had been obtained. 



In 1S99 he published his first book, apart from various memoirs of 



* " A Fossiliferous Pleistocene Deposit at Stone on the Hampshire coast," 

 Q. J. G. S. xlix. (1893) ; " Further notes on the Arctic and Palaeolithic Deposits at 

 Hoxne", (by C. R. & H. N. Ridley), and Brit. Ass. Rept. 189.5 ; " The Relation of 

 Palaeolithic man to the Glacial Period", Brit. Ass. Rep. 1896 ; " The Palaeolithic 

 Deposit at Hitchin," Proc. R. S. Ixi. 



t Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc. liii. p. 463. 



X Journ- Linn. Soc. xxxiii, p. 464. 



§ Annals of Botany, xii. p. 243. 



m2 



