262 THE ROMANO -BRITISH BARROW ON MERSEA ISLAND. 
that the Morant Club is under a deep debt to Mr. Hazzledine 
Warren for the very great amount of time, care, and skill 
he devoted to the supervision of the work of opening the barrow. 
MILLER CHRIST Y", 
FRANCIS W. READER,/ 
Hon. Secs. 
(-.) BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS. —Towards the 
completion of the digging, when the workmen had reached the 
original level of the ground beneath the centre of the barrow, 
I noticed that the soil which had formed the original surface 
was rich in the seeds of plants ; and it occurred to me that the 
examination and identification of these seeds might prove of 
much interest as throwing light upon the flora of the district in 
Roman days. 
Accordingly, I washed out a large quantity of the soil which 
had formed the original surface (it must have amounted, I 
think, to a hundred-weight or more in all) and made an ex¬ 
tensive collection of the seeds contained in it. These I sub¬ 
mitted to Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., who kindly undertook their 
determination. 
The result proved that the species present were neither 
very numerous nor particularly interesting. Indeed, the 
result hardly repaid one for the amount of labour that had been 
bestowed upon the collection. The following is the list of 
species identified :— 
Ranunculus bulbosus 
Fumaria officinalis (abundant) 
Raphanus raphanistrum (abundant) 
Spergula arvensis ? (badly preserved) 
Montia sp. 
Lycopus europceus 
Galium sp. 
Scrophularia sp. 
St achy s betonica 
Chenopodium bonus-henricus 
Chenopodium sp. 
Polygonum aviculare 
Rumex acetosella ? (nut only) 
In addition to the above, there were seeds of two or three 
other common wild plants which Mr. Reid hesitated to identify. 
