266 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 1893. 



to one spot in Norfolk only. The species is at present a native of 

 temperate and tropical regions of the Old World. 



A further indication of the possibility of survival is afforded by the 

 flora of Cornwall and Devon. Like the Iberian element in the Irish 

 flora, the Norman element in that of Cornwall and Devon may 

 have existed there before the Glacial epoch. At least, the precarious 

 foothold of many of the species, and the apparent dying out of some, 

 are not suggestive of species migrating northwards in response to a 

 continually ameliorating climate. 



In a paper on " The Climate of Europe during the Glacial 

 Epoch," ^ Mr. Clement Reid discusses the question of the tempera- 

 ture of Britain during the Glacial Period. Some of his results seem 

 to have an important bearing on the present enquiry. If, as he con- 

 cludes, the temperature increased rapidly towards the south, there 

 would be a greater possibility of survival south of the limits of 

 glaciation. At the same time, a southern England bounded by an 

 ice-foot similar to that of the Arctic regions, as pictured in the same 

 article, does not appear a favourable shelter for any but somewhat 

 hardy forms of plant and animal life. Mr. Reid also arrives at the 

 conclusion that " extensive regions must have been quite uninhabit- 

 able for their present fauna and flora." Whether, however, this 

 remark is to be applied to the South of England or not does not 

 appear. 



The solution of the problem which forms the subject of this article 

 seems to me an important one, since almost the only evidence of a 

 post-Glacial connection with the Continent is the supposed necessity of 

 such to account for our present fauna and flora. To those geologists, 

 indeed, who, on the strength of the evidence of a submerged forest, 

 infer an elevation of the country en masse, such a connection — even 

 repeated many times in accordance with the view of many Glacial and 

 inter-Glacial periods — is no difficulty at all ; they are as prodigal in 

 respect of earth-movements as those naturalists who would " create a 

 continent to account for the migration of a beetle." To those, however, 

 who shrink from such assumptions, unless supported by strong 

 evidence, and who feel that such oscillations of the land en masse are 

 inconsistent with the physics of the earth's crust, the conclusion here 

 indicated may perhaps be a welcome solution of a difficulty. 



G. W. BULMAN. 



Natural Science, vol. ii., August, 1S92, p. 427. 



