426 Reviews — Clement Reicl- — Origin of the British Flora. 



nothing more was done for several months. Next summer the route 

 of the line was marked by a scarlet ribbon, which could be seen 

 stretching across the country, the newly-bared sub-soil having been 

 taken possession of by a profusion of poppies." 



In chapter iv the author gives an exceedingly interesting but 

 cautious epitome, so far as evidence is available, of the rapid 

 succession of small changes, which characterized the latest stages in 

 the evolution of the British Isles. The reader is warned that the 

 author has been "led to interpret the records somewhat differently 

 from other geologists." The conclusions have not been arrived at 

 without the careful examination of trustworthy data, and many 

 readers will be inclined to agree with Eeid's view that the records 

 of mild interglacial epochs are of much greater importance than 

 has been frequently assumed. The Ice Age has undoubtedly been 

 exaggerated as a period of extreme Arctic conditions ; it requires 

 but a slight change in a temperate climate to bring about a wider 

 spread glaciation. It would seem highly probable that during the 

 Pleistocene period the climate was " at least as commonly temperate 

 as Arctic," and at two or more periods there was a sufficient 

 accumulation of snow and ice to convert a temperate into an Arctic 

 climate. This chapter gives us many glimpses of fascinating interest 

 of the waves of life, which swept over Britain during the period of 

 constantly changing conditions between the Pre-Glacial and the 

 Roman age. 



Chapter v consists for the most part of lists of plants from various 

 localities, but it is prefaced by a brief account of the conditions 

 under which the seeds, leaves, or twigs were preserved as fossils. 

 A map showing the position of the various localities would 

 have been a great convenience. It would have served a useful 

 purpose if the author had given a more detailed description of the 

 best methods of collecting and preparing the fossil fragments. 

 A collector with the experience of Mr. Reid often forgets the 

 ignorance and inexperience of the layman, who, if properly 

 directed, might easily become an enthusiast, and carry out excellent 

 work in so promising a field as that of Post-Tertiary Botany. In 

 the Stockholm Museum of Palseobotany the writer has had the 

 opportunitj'^ of seeing several specimens of Pleistocene plants care- 

 fully prepared by Dr. Gunnar Andersson by a method of which a full 

 account has been published in a Swedish journal, and displayed in 

 such a manner as to make the most of the material from the point 

 of view of accurate determination and attractive exhibition. In 

 a department confined to the study of fossil plants, like that presided 

 over by Prof. Nathorst in Stockholm, this kind of work is more 

 easily carried out than in England, where palaeobotany has not 

 reached the same level of official recognition. 



Chapter vi treats of the former distribution of British plants, but 

 with the exception of four introductory pages the information is 

 given in a form more suitable for reference than for continuous 

 reading. The species hitherto recorded from Pleistocene deposits in 

 Britain include not more than one-sixth of the present flora. This 



