1861.] REVIEWS. 123 



of the county, and the south-eastern district, consisting also of chalk, is 

 undulating and well furnished with wood. To the north of the chalk 

 country a broad belt of level clayey land occurs, having much flint gravel 

 distributed over its surface. Formerly, each watercourse traversing this 

 clayey district was bordered more or less widely by a morass, and some of 

 its depressed parts formed tracts of fen. 



" Until recently most of the chalk district was open and covered with a 

 beautifid coating of turf, profusely decorated with Anemone Pulsatilla, As- 

 tragalus Ilypoglottis, and other interesting plants. It is now converted 

 into arable land, and its peculiar plants mostly confined to small waste 

 spots by roadsides, pits, and the very few banks which are too steep for 

 the plough. Thus, many species which were formerly abundant have become 

 rare ; so rare as to caxise an unjust suspicion of their not being really na- 

 tives to arise in the minds of some modern botanists. 



" Until within about sixty years the whole of the clay district was open, 

 although cultivated. The homesteads were collected together so as to form 

 villages, and each had one or two little paddocks attached to it ; the 

 remainder of the parish, the ' field,' being without fences, and divided 

 by slender lines of ancient turf, denominated ' balks,' into long narrow 

 strips called ' yard-lands.' With a very few slight exceptions, all the 

 'field ' is now enclosed, and the ' balks,' with the various plants which grew 

 upon them, destroyed by the plough. Thus the plants native to the clay 

 have suftered nearly as much as those indigenous to the chalk. Where 

 they were formerly abundant they are now rarely to be found. 



" Botanically speaking, the Fens have undergone an equally, if not more, 

 destmctive change. The employment of steam has made the removal of 

 the water so certain, that nearly the whole level may be cited as a pattern 

 in farming. With the water, many of the most interesting and character- 

 istic plants have disappeared, or are become so exceedingly rare, that the 

 discovery of single individuals of them is a subject for woiuler and con- 

 gratulation. There is scai'cely a spot remaining (I only know of one, 

 near Wicken) in which the ancient vegetation continues undisturbed and 

 the land is sufficiently wet to admit of it coming to perfection. Owing to 

 the necessary existence of numerous ditches to divide the fields and collect 

 the water, those plants which are absolutely aquatic have not suff"ered so 

 greatly as the others." 



No wonder that we find in the Appendix some 50 species enu- 

 merated as " Lost Plants." 



As might be expected, from its southerly position and its prox- 

 imity to the European continent, Cambridgeshire affords a rich 

 variety of indigenous plants. Including nearly eighty species 

 marked as introduced, the species enumerated in the table of dis- 



