THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS 415 
now apparently on the verge of extinction, it is somewhat strange 
that I am not prepared to mention a single case in which extinction 
has actually taken grasa so far, that is, as our whole archipelago 
is concerne This may be due in part to the imperfect investiga- 
tion of our flora in the times. One of the nearest cases of ex- 
tinction would seem to be one recorded by Mr. Druce, which is 
ations 
Ta so that pparent danger ; 
zeruent Ng he found that the sawdust from the mills had been 
rsh 
and even “to some extent the marsh adeeee (Caltha bese 
The more completely aquatic species, such as the Pota gh MERE 
may survive in such localities in the ditches constructed for drai 
age; and it may be possible in some cases to preserve small areas 
of bog nearly in their pristine condition, as has been done at 
Wicken ho and’on the Black Hill of Cromarty, the locality for 
Pinguicula alpina. Among our British ferns Lastrea Thelypteris, the 
Ophioglossums, and = i td ap liable to cape et by this 
same draina n na larger scale than the drainage of our 
own fon tages is the balanhiin + now in pris in the Everglades 
of Florida, a vast plain covered with swamps and shallow lakes 
half-choked with vegetation, a subtropical analogue of our Norfolk 
Broads having perhaps no exact parallel in the world. This area ss 
now being drained for the cultivation of pine-apples and bananas. } 
an has forestry, those ‘ weeds of cultivation,’ mostly annual 
herbs with small see ard oe ones of which form a most 
instructive study. Thei me of ‘“ weeds” — alas! aaa 
they are to the agriclinsst eke in alia e wron; 2 angel and 
necessary care of the m mer to secure his dubi oxi 
profits means that the Geausfar corn-cockle sehen gn 
corn-flower (Centaurea tS ei and others are no 
* they were rains years ago, and even poppies mg pana. | more 
onfined to railway ai baraente and other uncultivated margins 
of cultivated ground. Thus what Agriculture has given with one 
* [It would — that a latifolia 8 ~ known only from the Lanca- 
x era uch ve 
: of Commi mi eee Cotieswai Nala Field Club in 1903, 
seprinted i in n Nature Noes vol. 
t Mary Perle eb aaa . The Pepteotist of our Native Plants,” Journ. 
New York Bot. Gard., vol. v., No. 52 (1904). 
