66 



Notes and Comments. 



THE MARTEN IN BRITAIN. 



In the Janaury ' Zoologist/ Mr. H. E. Forrest gives a resume 

 of the evidences of the past and present status of the marten 

 in England and Wales. Is some of the counties it seems to 

 have been recorded much more frequently than in others. As 

 has already been stated in these pages, the species still lingers 

 in the Lake District, though it is there exceedingly scarce, and 

 unless prompt measures are taken to protect it, it will soon 

 become extinct in Britain. With the following concluding 

 remarks we heartily agree : — ' Of our native mammals, none 

 excel the marten in grace of movement and beauty of form. 

 Can nothing be done to prevent its extermination ? If an}^ 

 action be taken, it should be speedily. To preserve it through- 

 out the country would be impracticable, but I suggest that some 

 large land-owner in Wales or the Lake District should make 

 his estate a sanctuary for the animal, and let his keepers 

 strictly preserve it.' It would be an excellent thing if the 

 National Trust, which now has under its charge the Gow- 

 barrow estate, would encourage this interesting mammal , 

 and in this way preserve it for the benefit of naturalists in the 

 future. 



THE PRE-GLACIAL FLORA OF BRITAIN. 



A valuable contribution to our knowledge of pre-glacial 

 plants appears in a recent number of the ' Journal of the 

 Linnsean Society' (Vol. 38, pp. 206-227), by Mr. Clement Reid 

 and Miss E. M. Reid. Mr. Reid's work in this direction is well 

 known, and the present paper shows how rapid recent advances 

 have been. In 1870 fewer than twenty species were known, in 

 1890 the number was raised to fifty-six, in 1899 -to sevent}/- 

 eight, while the list now published includes 147 species. These 

 are illustrated by 181 excellent photographs on five plates 

 accompanying the paper. One of the greatest obstacles to 

 progress in this work was the absence of collections of ripe seeds 

 and fruits of British plants, a point v/orthy of the attention of 

 botanists. As Mr. Reid states, these are the parts most com- 

 monly preserved, and he finds that ' almost every species which 

 can be distinguished by other characters can be distinguished 

 by the seed alone . . . and often give better specific characters 

 than the whole of the rest of the plant,' hence the importance 

 of a study of fruit and seed characters for work of 

 this kind. 



•Naiiiralist, 



