A Naturalist's Domesday It has been brought out in investigations
by those county sub- committees—even near London and much more in remoter counties— that " British flora and fauna are still largely unexplored." Technical local knowledge is wholly necessary to any central body, if the less common flowering plants and butterflies and moths are to be preserved; and the principle holds that future scientific enquiry can best be served by selecting representative types of natural unspoilt habitats, for many of the most valuable of these are threatened in a variety of ways, often through mere ignorance. A marsh, a bit of scrub, a wood-encircled pond, a beech clump, a sedgy bay by a winding stream may have values wholly unperceived by the general public. Material for a natural history Domesday has been gathered, and should prove of inestimable value it rightly respected by central planners.
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