Mat 1902.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 239 



two, SO far as we are here concerned, are that the plants 

 entombed in the recent Broads date from the present time, 

 and are native to England, while those in the older 

 " Broads " date very far back in time, if we estimate their 

 antiquity by centuries ; and, further, they had drifted from 

 the Continent. 



Notwithstanding these points of difference, there is an 

 extraordinarily close parallel between their respective floras, 

 as anyone may see by merely glancing over the lists of 

 plants given in Clement Eeid's " Geology of Cromer," or 

 those in the Geological Survey Memoir on the "Pleiocene 

 Eocks of Britain." Further reference may be made here 

 to other works by the same author, such as the Annals 

 of Botany, ii. p. 177 (1888), and xii. p. 243 (1898), as 

 well as to his "Origin of the British Flora," Dulau, 1899, 

 the latter being a work that ought to be read with the 

 closest attention by everyone interested in the question 

 with which this paper deals. 



Mr. Reid states^ that "From the Forest Bed fifty-six 

 species of flowering plants have now been determined. 

 Two of them — the Water Chestnut and the Spruce Fir- — 

 do not appear to have belonged to our flora since the 

 Glacial Epoch ; the others are nearly all still living in 

 Norfolk," and, he adds, " There is also a considerable 

 number of seeds still undetermined, and at least two of 

 these seem to belong to no living British plant. 



" The flora contained in the Cromer Forest Bed may be 

 divided into two groups — the forest trees and the marsh 

 or aquatic plants. Of the upland plants, and of the plants 

 of dry or chalky soils, we at present know absolutely 

 nothing. The forest trees are well represented, in fact 

 they are better known than in any of our later deposits. 

 We find the Maple, Sloe, Hawthorn, Cornel, Elm, Birch, 

 Alder, Hornbeam, Hazel, Oak, Beech, Willow, Yew, Pine, 

 and Spruce. This is an assemblage that could not well be 

 found under conditions differing greatly from those now 

 existing in Norfolk. There is an absence of both arctic 

 and south European plants. The variety of trees shows 

 that the climate was mild and moist. The occurrence of 

 the Maple and the Hornbeam shows that the climate can 

 ^ "Pleiocene Deposits of Britain," p. 185. 



