42 EEPORT— 1893. 



tural or pastoral there was but little change. The changes which had 

 occurred were referable almost wholly to the enterprise and activity of 

 the landowners, who had converted peat-mosses and sandy wastes into 

 land profitable for agriculture or even for building purposes. Hence the 

 disappearance of Gentiana pneumonanthe and Osmunda, with other less 

 conspicuous moss and moor plants. However, in other quarters there is 

 still no lack of the cotton sedge, the Lancashire asphodel, and the Erica 

 tetralh'. But the dye-polluted streams are forsaken by the forget-me- 

 nots and other water-loving plants, and many ponds within five or six 

 miles of the town have been drained or filled up, or converted into lakes 

 for the adornment of pleasure grounds. These changes have involved 

 the loss of such plants as the Stratiotes, the Myriophyllnm, and various rare 

 sedges, the Garex elovgata, for instance, once abundant. Fifty years ago 

 the little dells, locally called ' doughs,' were noted for their curious 

 botany. Mere Clough, near Prestwich Mere, once grew in plenty the 

 Calamagrostis lanceolata, Ghrysosplenium alternifolium, Geum rivale, and 

 various shade-loving carices. Now all are gone, partly through the 

 felling of the trees and drying of the soil, partly because the clough 

 being now a thoroughfare, much trampling down and destruction are 

 done by the reckless and unobservant. 



Coming to the wilful and deliberate destruction of plants, Mr. Leo 

 Grindon remarked that the professed botanists and simple collectors of 

 specimens for the herbarium were but little to blame. The Manchester 

 flora could not be said to have ever included species existing scarcely 

 anywhere else, and the local botanists had therefore but little to answer 

 for. Even the ' Field Naturalists,' who had been an organised body 

 more than thirty years, could not be charged with wasteful gathering. 

 Many of the members took home handfuls of wild flowers, but the plants 

 taken were such as would never be missed. By whom, then, was the 

 mischief done ? The herb-doctors or ' medical botanists ' had caused 

 much destruction of plants supposed to have medicinal value, such as the 

 Erythrcea centaurium.. They were often to be seen in the season returning 

 home with plants under their arms which had been pulled up by the 

 roots just as they were coming into bloom. Another destructive agency 

 was that of the dealers in roots for the garden. One of them had once 

 asked him to name a locality where he could dig up from 300 to 500 roots 

 of a certain rather favourite fern, but without obtaining a reply. Another 

 dealer brought with him a basket and trowel in order to bring away 'all 

 there was ' from a particular spot, which was consequently not visited 

 that afternoon, the botanical guide of the party having become aware of 

 the dealer's plan. Besides ferns, dealers dug up immense numbers of 

 primroses, cowslips, and oxlips, and had greatly diminished their num- 

 bers. Thus the mischief done to the local flora was partly due to the 

 progress of agriculture and manufactures and the increase in building, 

 partly to the rapacity of the dealers in ferns and other plants. 



Mr. Mark Stirrup added that he could confirm Mr. Leo Grindon's 

 remarks from his own experience of the disappearance of ferns and 

 primroses in the neighbourhood of Manchester within the last fifteen or 

 twenty years. In one case he remembered that a gentleman sent a horse 

 and cart to a certain spot where the Osmunda grew, and removed all the 

 specimens he could find. 



Mr. Sowerbutts thought it would be well for field naturalists' clubs 

 to keep the exact localities in which rare plants grew for their own 



