( cxl ) 



ragwort, the Marsh Fleabane, Eriophorum alpinwn and 

 Carex davilUana are all species attached to moist situations. 

 Perhaps the most characteristic types of country which obtain 

 in the British Islands to-day are the sand-dunes, the shingle- 

 beaches, and the salt marshes. There are still large areas 

 of each of these three types left, though golf has sadly in- 

 terfered with the first-named, and it is among the salt marshes 

 of England that perhaps our most interesting species are 

 found. Epiowpteryx retiella only occurs in Great Britain 

 and Holland. Its only near ally comes from the Steppes of 

 Hungary and Russia. It is a truly wonderful insect, and 

 every eSort should be made to protect it. Leucania favicolor 

 is, as far as I know, confined to this country, while Agdistis 

 bennetti appears, so far, to have been recorded only from 

 England, Holland and France, though perhaps it has a wider 

 distribution. It is these local insects which still occur, and 

 occur fairly commonly, in the British Islands which we 

 should endeavour to protect. One or more areas of salt 

 marsh should be acquired and permanently preserved. The 

 tiny Goniodoma limoniella is confined to this country, and so 

 are several other micros inhabiting salt marshes, though it is 

 more than probable that, were they searched for in Holland and 

 France with the same assiduity as has been bestowed on them 

 in this country, they would be found to occur also on the 

 Continent of Europe. The Norfolk Broads, harbouring, as 

 they do, Fapilio machaon and No)iagria hrevilinea, which latter 

 is confined to the British Islands, is another instance of an 

 area which should never be allowed to be destroyed. In 

 Wales Agrotis asJncortJm and Acidalia contiguaria offer another 

 field for the establishment of a reserve, while one or other of 

 the chief haunts of the Large Blue should also be acquired. 



There are many plants which it is more than desirable 

 should be preserved, and this can only be effected by offering 

 adequate protection to the spots where they grow. A law, 

 were it to be passed, absolutely forbidding any one to pick 

 or interfere with one or the other of the rarer orchids would 

 not benefit that plant in the least, were the ground where it 

 obtains ploughed or planted with larch trees, a fate which 

 is more than likely to await some of our already disappearing 



