126 Notes and Comments, 



quantity of sediments deposited on it and by the type and 

 quantity of organic matter it contains. (2) Light intensity 

 may limit the depth to which types of \'egetation descend, 

 but is of secondary importance as a factor in the distribution 

 of most of the plants considered. (3) Temperature conditions 

 are assumed to retard the development of vegetation during 

 early summer, but in other respects to be of little significance. 



(4) The absence of free floating vegetation is attributed 

 to the paucity of the waters in essential plant food substances. 



(5) Plant succession is accompanied by changes in the sub- 

 stratum akin to those resulting in the formation of moor peat.' 



GEOLOGISTS AND INTELLIGENCE. 



The following extract is taken from a quotation by one 

 Macintosh, which appears in Munro's ' Story of the British 

 Race.' All we can hope is that this Macintosh is in heaven : 

 in other words, that it was written many years ago. On the 

 other hand it does not always follow that all F.G.S's. are 

 deep-thinking geologists, nor that thoroughly informed geolo- 

 gists are all F.G.S's. : — ' Along the borders of North and 

 South Wales the people are naturally more intellectual than 

 in any other part of England — Hertfordshire, Essex, Cam- 

 bridgeshire and Hampshire perhaps excepted. In a long 

 district running between Taunton and Oswestry, extending as 

 far west as Hay and as far east as Bath and Bewdley, science, 

 especially geology, receives at least ten times more attention 

 than it does in any other equally-sized area. This conclusion 

 I have arrived at from personal observation, and it is cor- 

 roborated by the comparative number of Fellows living in 

 the district whose names may be found in the list of the 

 Geological Society. It is difficult to explain this fact without 

 supposing it to be connected with the Welsh derivation of 

 many of the inhabitants who may be regarded as Anglicised 

 Welsh. It cannot arise from superior elementary education, 

 for that is defective throughout the greater part of the district, 

 neither can mining pursuits be the cause, for the working 

 miners are not the most intelligent part of the population. 

 In the adjacent parts of Wales where English is spoken, we 

 likewise find a greater taste for solid knowledge than in the 

 heart of England. The little and poverty-stricken town of 

 Montgomery, with its immediate neighbourhood, contains 

 more than a dozen thoroughly-informed and deep-thinking 

 geologists ; whereas a traveller might visit a dozen towns of the 

 same size in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, or East Yorkshire 

 without meeting with a single geologist.'* 



* According to The Yorkshire Post, a few days ago, Prof. Keith con- 

 siders that ' people in the north think more than people in the south, 

 and are more interested in scientific problems.' 



Naturalist 



