ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS 335 



To take the various phyla of the so-called flowerless plants 

 from highest to lowest, one by one, and trace in each group their 

 past and present constituents, would be both interesting and valu- 

 able for comparison with other areas. Unfortunately this cannot 

 be done in detail in every case, as each group has not received the 

 same attention at the hands of local botanists, and in fact in the case 

 of the Myxothallophyta, the Schizophyta, Schizomycetes, Bacilla- 

 riaks, Gamophycece, and perhaps it should also be said of the fungi, 

 especially the micro-fungi, much work yet remains to be done. 

 But it may be stated as a general rule — with the reservation that 

 infusorial organisms may be said to be of universal distribution — 

 that in these cases also (and special reference is made to the 

 " Algae " and " Fungi ") the species of plants found on Charnwood 

 Forest differ from those found in the surrounding areas, and the 

 species thus confined to the mountainous region — whether algae 

 or fungi — are subject to the same changes of climate, caused by dis- 

 forestation and drainage, or the effects of poisoning by smoke and 

 other artificial agencies, as the lichens, hepatics, and mosses, 

 which, it is well established, have disappeared from these causes. 



It is to the latter that this communication is mainly confined, 

 as in regard to these more data are forthcoming, and the author 

 has had more opportunity of personally arriving at and verifying 

 the facts and conclusions here put forward. It should be noted 

 that w T hat has caused an alteration in the constituents of the 

 lichen-flora affects two groups of entirely different affinity 

 certain groups of algae and fungi — united symbiotically in the 

 lichen group, though it may perhaps be added that possibly the 

 factor that causes the disappearance of the latter may affect only 

 one and not both of the former groups. 



It will be best to deal first with the lichens, which more than 

 any other cryptogams demand the best natural conditions in their 

 struggle for existence, whilst it will be more convenient also to 

 deal with them here, in giving some general reasons for the 

 universal disappearance of cryptogamic plants from Charnwood 

 Forest within recent years. It is well known that lichens require 

 not only a clear and pure atmosphere in which to exist, but also a 

 moist and generally humid climate. The first requirement was 

 admirably met — as was also indeed the other — by the state of 

 Charnwood a century ago, but since the invention of the steam- 

 engine and the subsequent introduction of railways into Leicester- 

 shire in 1832 by the construction of the Leicester and Swanning- 

 ton Railway by George Stephenson, both of these features of the 

 district have given place to others. With the increased impetus 

 given to the mining trade in the Leicestershire Coalfields, new 

 collieries soon sprang up, and in a few years, where formerly all 

 w r as given over to agriculture, there arose the Desford, Bagworth, 

 Ibstock, Heather, Nailstone, Ellistown, and South Leicestershire 

 Collieries. At Coalville the industry was increased enormously, 

 Snibstone and Whitwick possessing several shafts, whilst further 

 west, in the older part of the coalfield, at Pegg's Green, Swanning- 

 ton, the Calcutta Pit, Cole Orton, and to the north at Lount, Heath 



