242 INARA IE SC LE INGE. APRIL, 
poons, and needles, hearths and traces of cookery, and worked flints of 
the patterns commonly found in deposits of the reindeer period. A 
few sketches of horse and reindeer, incised on flat pieces of bone or 
limestone, have also been discovered. Bed 5 has as yet yielded no 
trace of man, but is extremely rich in remains of rodents, like those 
characteristic of the extinct German “ steppe-fauna”’ of Professor 
Nehring, who has also identified the specimens from Schweizersbild. 
Directly beneath lies a mass of rolled pebbles, forming part of the 
widespread sheet of flood and moraine gravel usually referred to the 
latest glaciation of the Rhine valley. 
These excavations show that part at least of the Paleolithic 
deposits are newer than the last glaciation of the district. We have, 
however, no account of the contents of bed 3, which may possibly 
show a less marked recurrence of arctic conditions, such as seems to 
have taken place in Britain after the Paleolithic period and before the 
incoming of Neolithic man. The oldest types of Paleolithic imple- 
ments, and the large extinct mammals, suchas elephant and rhinoceros, 
usually associated with them, have not been found at Schweizersbild,. 
and it is still a moot point whether they should be looked for above or 
below the moraine gravels which mark the climax of the Glacial 
period. It is satisfactory to learn that half the area under the rock- 
shelter at Schweizersbild remains to be excavated, so that there is 
still a possibility of clearing up these doubtful points. We shall 
watch with great interest the results of Dr. Niiesch’s excavations 
during the coming season, after which we hope to receive a fuller 
report. 
Earty FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 
Now that the season has begun, we would like to suggest the 
advisability of a more scientific method in the observation of dates of 
flowering of plants. One constantly comes across notes recording the 
exceptionally early appearance of certain flowers. It is forgotten, 
however, that the premature opening of the flowers may often mean 
death to the plant, or at any rate a serious waste of material. The 
production of seed is the final end to which all parts of the plant are 
modified. If by early flowering the plant is enabled to seed more 
freely, the date of flowering will tend to become earlier and earlier ; 
but if the flowering is premature, and is not followed by the 
formation of seed, then the date will become later and later, as the 
too hasty individuals are killed off. 
Observers should not pick these early flowers, they should mark 
the specimens and return later on to see whether they have, or have 
not, produced any seed. No one appears yet to have noted whether 
the buttercups and dead-nettles, which flower more or less all through 
the winter, produce seed from the winter flowers. 
