414 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers in his handbook of British Rubi and in 
my Hepatics, as if we had invented it. But there was nothing more 
new or original in those contractions, than - _ use of ‘Jan., 
Feb., Mar. 5, &e., and ‘‘ Mon., Tues., Wed., 
H. W. Lert. 
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
By G. 8. Bounesr, F.L.S. 
(Tae following is a portion of a very interesting paper on “ The 
Preservation of our Wild Plants,” published in The Journal of the 
Royal Heriealeerel Society, vol. xxix. part 4 Decne, 1905). } 
going a gradua ae some species being lost ia others added 
to its flora. Elevation of the land with reference to the sea may 
not only bring about land connections, and so facilitate the migra- 
tion of ~~ but by producing desiccation, as has apparently 
happened in B: ee may ers alter and — the flora. 
The recent et r. Clement Reid as to the seeds found 
fossil in deposits oe recent partnern the former presence in 
England of Trapa, the water-chestnut, and, among others, of species 
of Naias not now known here, It is noteworthy that these are 
aquatic forms. Who shall say whether their disappearance is due 
solely to such a natural cause as elevation of the land, or to some 
indir i 
Memory of Present Observers,’ communicated to the South-Hastern 
Union of Scientific aera [in 1903], Messrs. Webb, McDakin, 
and Gray speak of the decadence in Hast Kent of no less than 
500 species of a5 oat not a f these—such as Statice, 
Saisola, Silene mar itima, Hippophaé, po pdt Cochlearia, Euphorbia 
Paralias, and Lactuca virosa—are attributed to encroachment by the 
sea.* Such causes of loss as these we may dismiss as being 
practically beyond our —— We do not urge a DPE ES 
breakwaters to preserve a few beautiful or interesting flowers. 
Equally inevitable, no rae are some of the losses pera aro to 
the increasing density of population and its concomitants, clearing, 
draining, and building. ..... 
Though many species of flowering plants in the British Isles 
have undoubtedly been much reduced in numbers, and some are 
* South-Eastern Naturalist, vol. viii. pp. 48-60. 
