360 EEPORT— 1891. 



inhabitants of the peat-moovs on the southera limit of this district. Both these 

 plants continue to be observed at intervals of a few years ; but so uncertain are 

 they in appearance that I have never yet known anyone to go specially in search 

 of them and be successful in his quest. But it would be an error to consider 

 either to be in danger of extinction. A circumstance occurred only last week that 

 strongly confirms my contention. About twelve years ago I fnnid a large patch 

 of Craml/e maritima on the Dorsetshire coast. A year or two later the plant had 

 entii'ely disapi)eared, and no trace of it could be found on se^-eral subsequent visits, 

 the last two years ago. But on Wednesday last I was greatly pleased to see at 

 least twenty five specimens growing upon the exact spot whence it had been 

 absent for nine or ten years. Here, with some show of reason and yet in error, 

 might have been reported a case of extinction of a rare species. 



One of tlie best known of western botanists places his finger upon 

 ■what the Committee cannot help feeling to be a source of danger to 

 plants in the following extracts from his letter : — ' In early life — that is, 

 before 1841 — I botanised over the neighbourhood of , and unfortu- 

 nately, with the late of , drew up a list of the plants in that 



district, since which many ferns have disappeared from the localities that 



we gave, and I fear that 's habit of giving them will lead to the 



extirpation of many other plants ; ' and another correspondent (Devon- 

 shire), dealing with the same point, instances Leighton's 'Flora of 

 Shropshire ' as one ' by the aid of which a child might walk straight up 

 to any plant in the county.' It is a matter, no doubt, of very grave 

 difficulty to determine to what extent it is desirable in a local flora to be 

 precise in the description of localities, and the Committee do not feel 

 that they are either competent or called upon to suggest laws upon the 

 subject. They do not see, however, that exactitude in defining locations 

 serves any really good purpose, and it certainly takes away somewhat 

 from the zest of a search, and removes an incentive to patient perse- 

 verance. Two correspondents illustrate the opposite method to that 

 complained of, inasmuch as one will not state a locality from which 

 Osmunda regalis is disappearing, lest thereby he should spread the know- 

 ledge of its continued existence therein; and another writes: — 'A few 

 days ago a very interesting discovery was made by a member of my 

 family, viz. a large patch of Maianthemum eonvallaria (L. C, 1394) in a 

 "wild, out-of-the-world distinct; but such a dread I have of marauders 

 that even in my communication with Kew I have not gone beyond 

 naming the county'- in which the " find " occurred.' 



More than one correspondent drav/s attention to the mischief very 

 often done by field clubs, not merely in the reckless and often extensive 

 removal of rai-e plants during their periodical forays, but that in the 

 ' Transactions,' in the local press, and privatelj'', the exact ' finds ' and 

 localities are indicated, so that further destruction becomes inevitable. 

 So long as field clubs themselves are such hardened sinnei's in this respect, 

 as manj' of them appear to be, it seems useless to invoke their assistance 

 in their respective localities for the purpose of urging upon the public 

 generally, and landowners particularly, the desirability of affording some 

 protection to the rarer of their local plants in their struggle for existence, 

 and of endeavouring rigidly to repress the loafers who gather the fern- 

 roots and hawk them for sale. 



The attention of the Committee is again drawn to the unsatisfactory 

 condition of the law of trespass, and the consequent difficulty under which 

 magistrates lie when called upon to act in the interests of wild plants. 



While the Committee feel that the time is not yet ripe for even 



