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By W. BOWLES BARRETT. 



(Read 14th September, 1905. ) 



being limited, I will proceed at once with my 

 subject, " Notes on the Flora of the Chesil Bank 

 and the Fleet," simply premising that few parts of 

 the Dorset coast-line have suffered so little change 

 as the shores and banks of the Fleet. Is not this 

 mainly due to the extraordinary protection afforded 

 by the Chesil Bank, the absence of any strong 

 tides and of all river flow, and the paucity of the 

 neighbouring population ? The result is that the 

 indigenous vegetation and all else are seen in their primitive 

 state, just as our Anglo-Saxon forefathers looked on them, when, 

 in their flat-bottomed boats, they rowed across to the Chesil 

 Bank from the little harbours on the inner shore, still called by 

 the Saxon name of " hythes." In fact, nothing of Nature's 

 work has been disturbed or altered by lapse of time. 



The Chesil Bank, north-west of Smallmouth, is rather difficult 

 of access. No other botanist than myself has ever undertaken 

 the somewhat arduous task of examining the Bank, as well as 



