THE ELEPHANT-BED OF CLACTON-ON-SEA. 37
The Flora.
Work on the large collections of seeds was begun by my
friend, the late Mr. Clement Reid, and finished by Mrs. Reid and
Miss Chandler. They list 135 species. These, in common
with the mammalia and the mollusca, indicate unquestionably
temperate conditions, milder rather than colder than those of
to-day, and also a drier climate.
Among the species of special interest there is one that is new,
and extinct, which the authors name Crataegus clactonensis.
A large number of the species do not extend further north
than Britain at the present day, while one, the water plant,
Najas minor, does not extend so far. Mr. Clement Reid informed
me of the significant fact that the last named species, although
not a native of Britain, has established itself in one of our canals
into which warm but non-poisonous water is discharged from
a factory, sufficiently to keep the temperature above the normal
for this country.
That evidence accords well with the French plant-beds of
Celle-sous-Moret and Resson, which are of approximately similar
date, the, first being a little earlier and the second a little later
than Clacton. The flora of these deposits include elements,
like the Canary Laurel, which cannot withstand the frosts of the
present day.
Another Clacton species, Euphorbia hiberna, lives in France,
Switzerland and Italy, but is confined in our islands to Cornwall
and Devonshire and the south-west of Ireland, where it is a rarity.
One Clacton species, Picea excelsa (the Norway Spruce)
is not a native of this country, although it lives and thrives when
planted. It has a wide European range, and is common and
conspicuous in Switzerland. It was an old inhabitant of this
country, as it is found not only at Clacton but also in the far
older Cromer Forest Bed. It is remarkable to find species at
Clacton which are characteristic of mountainous and northern
lands. But we must remember that the Pleistocene was an
abnormal period, when the fauna and flora were being driven
hither and thither, backwards and forwards, over the face of
Europe by the alternate advance and retreat of the ice. This
is not merely an imaginary picture, because we know that
in the Magdalenian stage, at the very end of the Pleistocene,