ACER — ERODIUM. 277 



commonest of the trees which are not clearly indigenous. If 

 introduced its introduction must date back to a very ancient 

 period. I have not heard that it has been met with in the post- 

 glacial peat deposits,* but at the present day it is common both 

 in the low country and amongst the hills. In both our 

 eastern and western dales no tree is more frequent about 

 villages and farm-houses. I have never seen it in any quan- 

 tity in a clearly aboriginal wood, like the Ash, Oak, Birch, 

 Hazel, Holly, Wych Elm, etc., or even like Tilia parvifolia in 

 Slip Gill, but have often noticed a single tree or two or three 

 trees in very wild-looking places, as for instance East Stones- 

 dale Woods, and in Cliff Gill, where there were no houses within 

 a considerable distance, and no other seemingly introduced 

 trees or other plants near. Upon the whole I would say, that 

 with us the Sycamore, like the Gooseberry-bush, and Cherry- 

 tree, is very likely to be indigenous, but that I have not 

 seen or heard of any evidence which shows conclusively that 

 such is the case. 



Erodium cicutarium L'Herit. British type. Native. Area 

 8765432 I. Range 0-150. Frequent in sandy ground in 

 the low country, both along the sea-coast and inland, ascending 

 to Yearsley Moor. 



Erodium moschatum L'Herit. Atlantic type. Denizen? 

 Area 3. Range 50. Waste ground at the road-side at Pals- 

 grave near Scarborougli ; H. Ibbotson. I have not seen a 

 specimen, and I>ean does not know the station. A Native of 

 the South of England. 



■* For an account of ihe old peat deposit.s of HolcleriiL'S.s and Thome Waste and the trees 

 which they contain, reference may be made to Phillips' Yorkshire. They are evidently all 

 of post-glacial date. Some of the Holderness deposits are below the present sea-level, 

 but others must be referred to the Historic era. Respecting one of the deposits at Hat- 

 field, Abraham De La Prymc writes in the PhiIosoi)hical Transactions for 1701 ;— ' Many 

 of the trees have been burnt, sometimes ([uite through : others chopped, squared, bored 

 through or split, ' ' and this at depths and under circumstances which preclude all 

 supposition of their having been touched since the destructioti of the forest.' The trees 

 named by Phillips as found in them are Oak, Yew, Alder, .\sh, Willow, Scotch Fir, Thorn, 

 Hazel, Beech, and Hirch. 



Sept. 1889. 



