4S o CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 



of studying the vegetation of isolated and therefore peculiarly interesting 

 floral regions only from dried specimens preserved in an herbarium ? 



But does this criticism apply to our own islands ? Are they not merely 

 a piece of western Europe furnished anew from the continent after a 

 period of comparatively recent glaciation ? This is only partly true. A 

 large proportion of our native flora is no doubt the result of post-glacial 

 immigration from the continent. But we have recently recognised that 

 glaciation has supplied interesting problems in leaving open isolated areas 

 which served as places of refuge for some species. In his recent address 

 on British endemics to the Botanical Section of the South-Eastern Union 

 of Scientific Societies, Mr. A. J. Wilmott combated the theory of complete 

 extinction of our original flora by glaciation, and associated various types 

 of endemic species with successive glacial periods in which specially 

 favoured localities remained unglaciated as homes of refuge. 



The more intensively we study our flora the more we find minor 

 differences of greater or less interest. Those of you who read the Journal 

 of Botany will have recently seen an account of a new Brassica found 

 by Dr. Elliston Wright on Lundy Island. It is allied to Brassica 

 monensis Hudson, a native of our western sea-coasts. There is no reason 

 to suppose that the plant is a new arrival. Lundy Island does not attract 

 many botanists, and specimens collected some years ago have since been 

 found in the late Mr. Hiern's herbarium (now at Exeter) but unrecognised 

 as a novelty. The plant is very local on the island, the comparative in- 

 accessibility of which will probably ensure its survival from the raids of 

 botanists, its only serious enemy. 



As editor of the Journal I have the opportunity of publishing records 

 of intensive study of genera or species which indicate the possibilities of 

 such investigations in adding to the detailed knowledge of our flora and 

 in elucidating points in distribution in our islands and relations with 

 continental forms. These supply further proof that our British flora is 

 still a fertile object of study and worthy of preservation on that account. 

 For instance, the Journal for the present year contains a revision of our 

 British Euphrasias by Mr. Pugsley, an example of a critical study of the 

 variation and distribution of a genus in a definite area, and a similar study 

 by the same author of a plant familiar to all field-botanists — Gentiana 

 Amarella. 



The preservation of natural floras implies adequate records and there 

 is still much to be done in relation to the British flora in this respect. The 

 preparation of local lists affords employ for local Natural History Societies, 

 and with the help of these a county flora may be prepared. Members of 

 our South-Eastern Union have during the last seven years helped thus 

 towards the compilation of a much-needed Flora of Sussex which has now 

 been completed by Lt.-Col. Wolley-Dod. Such floristic lists are important 

 from the point of view of plant-preservation, as they indicate by recording 

 distribution through a limited area over a period of years the increasing 

 frequency or rarity of individual species and varieties and therefore the 

 necessity for protection in special cases. 



Vegetational surveys may be of much interest from the same point of 

 view. They illustrate the fact that the status quo of a flora may be 

 naturally dynamic, not static. Mr. R. Good's recently published account of 



