Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/96

 A HISTORY OF KENT be forthcoming in due time, mainly of course among the more intricate forms, which are ' caviare to the general,' and are accordingly neglected by most observers. Even in a relatively small fragment of a small country like our ow^n the stores of Nature are not easily exhausted. Considering the inroads of cultivation already alluded to, and in spite of the depredations of thoughtless or unprincipled collectors, which have told heavily upon the ferns and orchids, the list of proved extinctions is surprisingly small. Leaving on one side the case of very doubtful natives like Echinophora spinosa and ambiguities like Elymus geniculatus, the following seven alone are certainly lost. It is quite possible, indeed, that two or three of them may yet be rediscovered. Eryngiutn campestre was found near New Romsey in 1873, and still held its ground in 1880; but it has apparently since been buried under sand cast up by the sea. The cotton-weed {Diotis candidissima), recorded from Sheppey by Hudson in 1778, probably disappeared owing to an opposite cause, the northern coast of this island having been steadily eaten away by the waves. Cyclamen hedercefolium, formerly abundant in woods near Sandhurst (where, the late Mr. W. W. Reeves informed us, it looked perfectly wild), was exterminated by transplantation into gardens. The fen orchis [Liparis Lceselii) appears to have been only once gathered at Ham Ponds near Sandwich, by Dillwyn (in 1802) ; it may yet exist, as there is a fenny tract suitable to it, and it is everywhere a plant of uncertain appearance. The soldier orchis [Orchis militaris), though formerly often reported owing to a confusion of names, O. purpurea being intended, can only be credited to the county on the evidence of a specimen from Northfleet in the herbarium of Dillenius at Oxford; the monkey orchis (0. Simia), on the contrary, used to be found not only in the Dartford district, but also near Faversham and Dover. Carex depauperata no longer exists in Charlton Wood, where it was originally discovered and described by Curtis. The only British plant apparently restricted to Kent is the clove- scented broom-rape [Orobanche caryophyllacea), which is however reported from Suffolk on doubtful evidence. The county was divided by H. C. Watson into two vice-counties, fifteen east Kent and sixteen west Kent, ' separated by the river Medway and its tributaries nearly up to Staplehurst, and thence by the high road through Cranbrooke to the border of Sussex, near Hawkhurst.' This arrangement was not serviceable for our purpose, nor was it found advis- able, in planning out the districts, to adopt the excellent watershed system now generally in vogue, owing to local conditions. Our ten divisions may be briefly described as follows ; they are partly natural, partly artificial : — I. West : Along the Surrey border from near Keston to the Thames, which bounds it on the north as far as Erith. East : Through Crayford, Bexley, St. Mary Cray and Orpington to a little south of Keston. Thence north-west to the starting point. Mainly Lower Eocene (London clay, Woolwich and Thanet beds), with alluvium near the 46