6 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



British Flora, and the three classes I suggest for my 

 present purpose are these : — 



The Heathen. 

 The Savages. 

 The Pagans. 



Excuse the names, they are most applicable. A 

 Heathen is, of course, one who dwells on a heath. The 

 Savage, or Sauvage, or Salvage, is really a Sylvatic or 

 wild thing of the woods. A Pagan is a dweller in villages. 

 All are uncultivated and uncultured. 



Now the Heathen are, as I take it the most abori- 

 ginal. They are plants which inhabit the northern 

 mountain moss and moor, the sandy wilds of the lowlands 

 and the windswept shore. Among them are the Alpine 

 and Arctic plants of our flora, and there is a general 

 tendency in them to decrease southwards, and the indica- 

 tion that they give of their origin is that they are the 

 flora of the sub-glacial epoch, of pre-palasolithic Britain. 

 Next to them come the savages, the flora of the forests 

 of deciduous trees, representing an ameliorated climate, 

 accompanied by the return of the species which had been 

 driven south by the cold. It is plain that these forests 

 maintained the larger herbivorous mammals, oxen, deer, 

 &c, and that the forest glades or clearings kept open by 

 these gave scope for perennial grasses and prepared the 

 way for the permanent pastures and meadow lands which 

 are so striking a feature of our country districts. 



The aquatic plants of the fen and river would form a 

 branch of this group, but are so restricted in station that 

 I need not deal with them. 1 shall have something to 

 say about the plants of the sea-shore which have their 

 own peculiarities. 



However, I may here conclude this hypothetical 



