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 CHRISTY, 
FRANCIS W. READER. 
(2.) 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 europaeus
Galium sp.
Scrophularia sp.
Stachys 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.