LICHENS OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 
245 
Arthur Evans, the safety-pin discovered at Glastonbury is identical 
in form and structure with those found in the old settlements of 
Gauls at Bibracte and Mont Beuvray ; he therefore places the date 
of the settlement at 50 b.c. Now, we are accustomed to consider 
the people who inhabited our country at that time as barbarians, 
whose only idea of ornament was displayed in the rude devices 
which they painted on their bodies. The dwellings and remains 
discovered at Glastonbury should do much to dispel this view, for 
it is clear that those ancient Britons had attained a very consider¬ 
able civilisation, and this is borne out by discoveries made else¬ 
where, from which we learn that long before the Romans conquered 
our country, beautiful Greek pottery, bronzes, mirrors, and other 
works of art were imported here from beyond the Alps. 
In conclusion, let us try to picture the scene as it may have 
looked to some trader who had pushed his way thus far beyond the 
beaten tracks—the dreary waste of swamp, and marsh, and lake, 
stretching as far as the eye can reach and ending only against the 
bulwark of shadowy hills ; here and there, the great tangled eyots 
of rush and sedge and flag, affording shelter to myriads of birds ; 
and yonder, under the shadow of the great hill, looking like the 
nests of water-fowl, a cluster of low huts, the abode of men who 
have built their dwellings on the quagmire and made their homes 
amid encircling waters. 
LICHENS OF THE ISLE OF MAN.* 
COLLECTED IN SEPTEMBER, 1892. 
BY W. H. WILKINSON, F.L.S., F.R.M.S., 
PRESIDENT OF THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
During a visit to the Isle of Man last autumn, several plants 
were noticed, which are only rarely met with, viz., the Winter 
Heliotrope (Tussilago fragrans), in a lane near Ramsey, where, 
perhaps, having escaped from cultivation, it had established itself; 
of course, there were leaves only, as the blossom comes in the early 
spring. In a wall not far away was a fine proliferous specimen of 
*Read before the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, 
March 7 th, 1893. 
November, 1893. 
