190 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
species were Avenaria marina and Glaux maritima, 
which he observed on the banks of the Severn and 
Droitwich canal, and on marshes caused by its overflow. 
Besides these, there were 16 species, most of which it 
must be admitted are commonly regarded as marine; 
though, according to Bentham, almost all of them are also 
found inland. Buckman contended that these forms must 
have been “derived from the seeds of plants which actually 
grew” in the locality “when the marine conditions formerly 
prevailed, and that the partial restoration of the same 
circumstances in the canal caused them again to germin- 
ate.” He describes these restored circumstances. He 
states that the mother-liquor and refuse of the Droitwich 
salt-springs are run into the canal, in consequence of 
which, “as ascertained by experiment, the canal water 
contains about 70 grains of salt to the imperial pint.” 
Now, it appears to me that the preservation of the seeds 
in a moist soil without germinating for long periods of 
time is incredible. Furthermore, such a strained hypoth- 
esis is unnecessary. Droitwich is only 70 miles from the 
Bristol Channel, and is in the line of the south-westerly 
gales, which so often sweep up the Severn valley. Given 
a soil in the Droitwich district capable of supplying a 
marine plant with its required amount of chloride of 
sodium, and the winds would soon supply the seeds. I 
am, therefore, obliged to conclude that the occurrence of 
sea-Shore plants in the lower Severn valley adds nothing 
to the evidence for a former marine submergence of the 
area. 
_I have now briefly examined the evidence advanced by 
Murchison and his followers in favour of “The Ancient 
Straits of Malvern.” I have pointed out that the marine 
shells are derived from an older formation, that the shaping 
of the Cotteswold escarpment is due to sub-aerial causes, 
that the so-called sea-beaches are either the result of 
