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Fowler: Presidential Address to Lincs. Naturalists’ Union. 2 231 
author, whoever. he may be. Not many years ago compara- 
tively little was known of Lincolnshire botany, but that is not 
the case now; at any rate with regard to flowering plants. 
Now and then a species new to the county may be discovered, 
but it is becoming more difficult every year to make any 
addition. The woods, the limestone quarries, the sandy 
warrens, the peat bogs, the drains, the gravelly and clay soils, 
and the sea-shore have been so well investigated that we know, 
practically, the species proper to each; so that, knowing the 
habitat, we can predict what is the nature of the soil, or con- 
versely, knowing the nature of the soil, we can predict, to 
a great extent, what plants will be found on it. In Lincolnshire 
climate and altitude have little or nothing to do with distribu- 
tion, so far as I can see. North or south, on hills or on plains, 
certain plants occur, if the soils suitable occur; if not, they are 
absent. It is a well-established fact that some plants require 
more lime, others more silica, others more salt, others more 
decaying vegetable matter, others more water than the average 
plant, and will not flourish unless they get it. Let me give you 
a single illustration. A friend of mine in Yorkshire has the 
wild Clematis (a southern species) growing in his garden. 
A few years ago he told me that, though it was to all appearance 
healthy, it never flowered. Knowing it to be a lime-loving 
plant (though in this instance growing on clay), I suggested 
that lime should be artificially supplied in the autumn, This 
was done, with the result that it flowered freely ; but now, when 
the lime is exhausted, the Clematis has ceased to flower. Surely 
this is a proof that it was not northern air which prevented it 
from flowering, but the absence of food convenient for it. 
Many similar instances might be adduced. In the same 
garden (and therefore in the same climate and the same alti- 
tude), highland and lowland, northern and southern plants are 
seen to flourish, if soil suitable to each be supplied. In a limited | 
area, like that of Lincolnshire, the distribution of plants depends 
mainly, at all events, on the nature of the soil. A farmer once 
told me that, on removing from a limestone to a sandy neigh- 
bourhood, he had quite a different set of weeds to contend with, 
and the same would no doubt be the case were he to take 
a farm on clay or warp land, though in the same county. From > 
this point of view even common plants are not without interest, 
showing, as they do, that they flourish best in soil congenial to ~ 
them, and are much more dependent on it, than on climate or — 
height above sea-level. 
August 1899, 
