454 
NATURE 
[ Sepz. 9, 1886 
characters employed in the diagnosis of species. The single 
moss (//ypnum turgescens, Schimp.) is no longer included in 
the British flora, but is still found as an Arctic and Alpine 
species in Europe, and the pre-Glacial specimens of this cellular 
plant differ in no respect from their living representatives. 
The older beds containing the remains of existing species, 
which are found also at Cromer, have recently been explored 
with unwearied diligence and great success by Mr. Clement 
Reid, F.G.S., an officer of the Geological Survey of England. 
To him I am indebted for the opportunity of examining the 
specimens which he has found, and I have been able to assist 
him in some of his determinations, and to accept all of them. 
His collections contain sixty-one species of plants belonging to 
forty-six different genera, and of these forty-seven species have 
been identified. Slabs of clay-ironstone from the beach at 
Happisburgh contain leaves of beech, elm, oak, and willow. 
The materials, however, which have enabled Mr. Reid to record 
so large a number of species are the fruits or seeds which occur 
chiefly in mud or clay, or in the peat of the forest bed itself. 
The species consist mainly of water or marsh plants, and repre- 
sent a somewhat colder temperature than we have in our own 
day, belonging as they do to the Arctic facies of our existing 
flora. ; 
Only one species (7rafa natans, L.), has disappeared from 
our islands ; its fruits, which Mr. Reid found abundantly in one 
locality, agree with those of the plants found until recently in 
the lakes of Sweden. Four species (Prunus spinosa, L., 
Gnanthe Lachenali?, Gmel., Potamogeton heterophyllus, Schreb., 
and Pinus Abies, L.) are found at present only in Europe, and 
a fifth (Potamoge'on trichoides, Cham.) extends also to North 
America; two species (Peucedanum palustre, Mcench, and 
Pinus sylvestris, L.) are found also in Siberia, whilst six more 
(Sangursorba officinalis, L., Rubus fruticosus, L., Cornus san- 
guinea, L., Euphorbia amygdaloides, L., Quercus Robur, L., 
and Potamogeton crispus, L.) extend into Western Asia, and two 
(Fagus sylvatica, L., and Alnus glutinosa, L.) are included in 
the Japanese flora. Seven species, while found with the others, 
enter also into the Mediterranean flora, extending to North 
Africa: these are Zhalictrum minus, L., Thalictrum flavum, 
L., Ranunculus repens, L., Stellaria aquatica, Scop., Corylus 
Avellana, L., Zannichellia palustris, L., and Cladium Mariscus, 
Br. With a similar distribution in the Old World, eight species 
(Bidens tripartita, L., Myosotis cespitosa, Schultz, Sueda mart- 
tima, Dum., Ceratophyllum demersum, L., Sparganium ramo- 
sum, Huds., Potamogeton pectinatus, L., Carex paludosa, 
Good., and Osmunda regalis, L., are found also in North 
America. Of the remainder, ten species (Wuphar luteum, Sm., 
Menyanthes trifoliata, L.,. Stachys palustris, L., Rumex maris 
timus, L., Rumex Acetosella, L., Betula alba, L., Scirpus pauci- 
Horus, Lightf., Taxes baccata, L., and Tsoetes lacustris, L.- 
extend round the north temperate zone, while three (Lycopus 
europaeus, L., Alisma Flantago, L., and Phragmites communi,) 
Trin. ), having the same distribution in the north, are found also 
in Australia, and one (Aifpuris vulearis, L.) in the south of 
South America. The list is completed by Ranznculus aquatilis, 
L., distributed over all the temperate regions of the globe, and 
Scirpus lacustris, L., which is found in many tropical regions 
as well. 
The various physical conditions which necessarily affected these 
species in their diffusion over such large areas of the earth’s 
surface in the course of, say, 250,000 years, should have led to 
the production of many varieties, but the uniform testimony of 
the remains of this considerable pre-Glacial flora, as far as the 
materials admit of a comparison, is that no appreciable change 
has taken place. 
Iam unable to carry the history of any existing species of 
plant beyond the Cromer deposits. Some of the plant-remains 
from Tertiary strata have been referred to still living species, 
but the examination of the materials, as far as they have come 
before me, convinces me that this has been done without sufficient 
evidence. The physical conditions existing during even the 
colder of the Tertiary periods were not suitable to a flora fitted 
to persist in these lands in our day, even if the period of great 
cold had not intervened to destroy them. And in no warmer 
region of the earth do these Tertiary species now exist, though 
floras of the same facies occur, containing closely allied species. 
The sedimentary beds at the base of the Glacial epoch contain, 
as far as we at present know, the earliest remains of any existing 
species of plant. 
It is not my purpose to point out the bearing of these facts on 
any theoretical views entertained at the present day: I wish 
merely to place them before the members of this Section as data 
which must be taken into account in constructing such theories, 
and as confirming the long-established axiom that by us, at 
least, as workers, species must be dealt with as fixed quantities. 
SECTION H 
ANTHROPOLOGY 
OPENING ADDRESS BY SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, K.C.S.I., 
M.P., D.C.L., F.R.G.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
I FEEL much diffidence in taking this chair, for, though in 
former days I used to pay a good deal of attention to what was 
then called ethnology, I have been for many years immersed in 
perhaps more exciting but, I am afraid, less satisfactory occupa- 
tions ; and I feel that Iam very far behind in scientific know- 
ledge and scientific methods. I only venture to address you 
because I take for my subject practical, rather than scientific, 
anthropology ; the study and cultivation of the creature man 
as he exists, rather than that branch of the subject which seeks 
to inquire into his origin and development. Intensely interesting 
as are inquiries into the origin of man, it must be admitted that 
our knowledge on the subject is still very limited and our progress 
slow ; that we have not yet got hold of the missing link, and 
scarcely know whether the flint implements are the work of man 
or of some earlier intelligent creature. We are hardly on firm 
ground till we come to man very much in the form in which we 
now have him, and even already divided into the principal 
varieties which exist to this day. I now then invite you to 
approach the subject rather as practical agriculturists deal with 
the subject of horses and cattle than as scientists who trace these 
animals to very ancient prehistoric types; and in dealing with 
man from this point of view I am emboldened by the considera- 
tion that here also science has not yet completely conquered the 
field, and that very much is open to those who bring to it only 
a quick eye and careful observation. I think it can hardly be 
doubted that, in distinguishing well-marked types of humanity, 
the eye is after all the easiest and perhaps the safest guide. 
With that alone one can recognise the unmistakable differences 
of colour, size, facial features, set of the eye, character of the 
hair, and one or two other features by which the physical 
characters of different types of humanity are varied. On the 
other hand, when we come to nicer and more subtile distinctions, 
especially among the mixed races which occupy most of the 
world, we must confess that anthropometric science as applied 
to craniology, &c., gives us results only partially conclusive. I 
have an unusually narrow head. I can hardly be fitted with a 
hat without making the hatter elongate it; my next brother 
has so remarkably broad a head that he cannot be fitted 
without altering a large hat the other way : and so I think it is 
in many families and races, as any one who tries to puzzle out 
craniological results will find. 
So again as regards other guides to race. It is admitted that 
language is not alwaysa safe guide, but still it is a very import- 
ant element in ethnological inquiries, especially among primitive 
races. Ihave paid some attention to that, and my impression 
is strong that language tests of race are to be found in the few 
simple elementary words and forms which any observer can 
easily master and examine, and not in the higher developments 
of the language, which are generally much intermixed with and 
influenced by foreign elements. I roughly put together a few 
dozen test words, &c., which we found very efficacious in India. 
Take English, too ; the origin of the race is found in the lower 
and monosyllabic words, though the majority of the English 
words ina dictionary are Latin and French. 
There is another race-guide which requires much care and 
some scientific accuracy, though not of what we should calla 
properly anthropometric character—I mean laws, customs, and 
habits. Like language these too may be varied by foreign 
influences, but I incline to think that they are more important 
for our purposes than has always been recognised, and are at 
least as persistent as, perhaps more persistent than, language. 
At any rate, they are certainly most important as affecting the 
modern history and cultivation of man; and while some laws 
and customs require scientific study, many habits and practices 
are on the surface, and open to the observation of every intelli- 
gent observer. I might class food and drink among such habits, 
as being those which bear most directly of all on physical 
