12 PEACOCK: LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS AT MARKET RASEN. 



the remains come from a place of burial, or else from the refuse heap 

 of an old Roman villa, which would probably be found near.' 



Messrs. G. H. Caton Haigh and J. J. Baldwin Young reported 

 the following bird's notes :— Goldcrest, Blue, Great, and Long- 

 tailed Tits, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Redstart, Green Woodpecker, Jay, 

 Carrion Crow, Swallow, Sand Martin, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, 

 Redpole, Magpie, Rook, and Common Gull. They also found a 

 Starling's nest in a Woodpeckers hole, and the nests of the Waterhen 



and Woodpecker. 



Mr. R. W. Goulding writes on the flora: — A botanist whose 



collecting is for the most part confined to the chalk wolds, expects 



to discover in the boggy and peaty ground of our sand warrens 



many plants which are not characteristic of the locality with which 



he is most familiar, though he will also find many species common 



to both districts. The causes of this varying distribution are 



obscure, and the consideration of such phenomena filled the late 



Charles Darwin with surprise.* * I am never weary/ he once wrote 



in a letter to Bentham, 'when walking in any new r adjoining district 



or country, of reflecting how absolutely ignorant we are w r hy certain 



old plants are not there present, and other new ones are, and others 



in different proportions.' But however obscure the causes may be, yet 



the facts remain. When, therefore, the Louth Society heard that the 



Union had arranged for a meeting w r hich should include a visit to 



Linwood Warren, they decided to join in, thinking that they would have 



an excellent opportunity of visiting ground new to most of their 



members, as well as of meeting some of the most experienced botanists 



connected with the county by birth or residence. With one exception, 



every one interested in the local distribution of our plants deemed their 



finds highly satisfactory. The exception was Mr. F. A. Lees, M.R.C.S., 



who had worked the Market Rasen circuit, a seven-mile radius, 



during residence there from April 1877 to September 1879, an d later 



on while staying there in 1881, and who now missed several species 



which were then not uncommon. In his opinion there was an 



element of sadness in going over old and well-remembered ground 



and failing to find the good things that had been recorded for it not 



twenty years ago, and so he was tempted to exclaim : 'Ichabod ! the 



glory has departed ! ' Yet even he was fain to confess that some 



good finds had been made. 



The Warren, at Linwood, was practically carpeted with our two 



and Ling (Calluna 



- 



Heaths (Erica 



erica DC), among which the beautiful deep blue flowers of the 

 Gentian (G. pnenmonanthe L.) were now and again conspicuous. 



* ■ Life and Letters of Ch. Darwin/ vol. 3, p. 34 . 



Naturalist, 



