370 EXCURSION IN KENT. [Mavch, 



botanist almost never injure his Ferns. Judging from all we 

 know, the earliest terrestrial Flora may have covered the dry land 

 with its mantle of cheerful green, and served its general purposes, 

 chemical and .others, in the well-balanced economy of Nature; 

 but the herb-eating animals would have fared but ill, even where 

 it throve most luxuriantly; and it seems to harmonize with the 

 fact of its non-edible character, that up to the present time 

 we know not that a single herbivorous animal lived among its 

 shades." 



Would some of the readers of the ' Phytologist ' inquire into 

 the facts respecting the Fern tribe being free from attack by in- 

 sects ? As far as I have observed, I find Miller's statement cor- 

 rect; and I should like to know what particular property the 

 Fern has to repel the attacks of insects, and why animals do not 

 eat it. S. B. 



EXCUKSION IN KENT. 



Details of a Six Days' Excwsion through a part of Kent, in the 

 month of August, 1835, by Daniel Cooper in company with 

 James Carter. 



[A correspondent suggests that the following notes may have 

 some interest for the readers of the '^ Phytologist,' and espe- 

 cially for those who had the pleasure of knowing their amiable 

 author. — Ed.] 



Friday, Aug. 7, 1835. — Left town at half-past ten a.m. Rained 

 a little all the way to New Cross. Turned off the road to Lew- 

 isham. Went into the chalk-pit; found an uncommon shell. 

 Bought some fossils : nothing particular. Got out of the pit 

 into the road. Went through Lewisham. Marked the plants 

 that grew on the borders of the river ; did not find any shells 

 there. Walked on through Lee. Noticed and wrote down the 

 plants growing by the roadside between Lee and Eltham. Caught 

 in a heavy shower of rain : no house that we could find shelter 

 within a mile : obliged to stand up under a hedge, rain dropping 

 from the leaves, very disagreeable. Left off raining and turned 

 fine. Took the signpost road to Mottingham. Found some 

 shells in a place where water had been, but which was now dry. 

 Arrived at the Porcupine Inn. Found a Mentha on the common 



