NATURAL HABITATS AND 
NATIVENESS.* 
What is a natural habitat ? Where, also, if such a thing is now 
possible in Lincolnshire, may one be met with in unsullied 
“purity? I have often asked myself these questions. What 1s more, 
so far as my reading extends, | have never received an answer. 
Moreover, I am not aware that these questions have ever been 
considered in all their bearings for a country like Great Britain. 
Indirectly H. C. Watson tried to simplify the riddle, but the 
mesh of the net he used for the purpose was too wide to catch all 
the fragments of information required for a satisfactory explan- 
ation. He showed us the way, however, if he did not arrive at 
the goal, or go very far on the road himself. Much though I 
admire his patient industry and methods, he singularly fails in 
getting at the truth he was indirectly seeking, despite his highly 
developed logicality. The terminology he employs is defective, 
for it is unusually difficult in application. The great error of his 
method is in treating species per se, as natives, denizens, colonists, 
or casuals, rather than in their varied relation to man the. great 
disturber of nature. The astonishing thing is that such a time 
should have elapsed without a more natural method being sug- 
gested. 
Now, with the exception of a few commons of Blown Sand 
with their included Peat bogs—and these have all been cut 
through by dykes—places where, speaking generally Calluna and 
Pteris are the predominating species, I doubt whether there is such 
a thing as “a natural habitat ” in Lincolnshire, the second largest 
county in England. 
If we consider the matter the state of the case becomes clear. 
The coast sand-hills are only semi-natural, most of them are 
“Presidential address to the L. N. U. for 1906. 
