16 JUNE 1933, Page 12

One of the chief reasons why Braunton Burrows should be

nationally or semi-nationally owned is that it is the only home in Britain of certain plants, lowly plants but of peculiar value to the scientific botanist ; and I should think that no place in England is more precious for the study of " ecology " or the native home of plants, of insects and of birds. It is at least the equal, in this reference, to Wicken Fen in Cam- bridgeshire or Scolt Head in Norfolk. We have scarcely a single plant sanctuary in the whole of the West country and very few other sanctuaries. Norfolk has more reserves than the whole of the West of England, islands and all ; and the West differs from the East in its botany and its animals +US completely almost as if they were parts of widely separated

islands. * *