was that discovered a few years since by Monsieur Emil Gadeceau in Belle Ile. This island lies off the mouth of the Loire, and its position some way from the coast and well out in the Atlantic induced him to make a special study of its flora. While engaged in this, his attention was drawn to certain hard peaty deposits seen only at low tide, and he asked me to undertake the examination of the seeds found in them. This work was gladly undertaken, as it carried further south the examination which was then being made into the flora of the submerged forests.
The results were somewhat surprising; out of about 30 species sufficiently well preserved for identification, six were no longer living in Belle Ile, though known in Western France. The whole flora might have come from the north of England, characteristic French species being entirely missing, though this element is fairly represented in the living flora of the island. In short, the flora is a northern one, though in no degree arctic, and in this it agrees well with the poor assemblage commonly found in the submerged forests of the south of England.
From still further south, at various points on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, and from the submerged peaty deposits which underlie the Landes, seeds have since been collected by my friend, Professor Jules Welsch, of Poitiers. These also all belong to common living British plants, except that at
