This 2000 book brings together the published information on the Quaternary cold stage flora of over 80 sites in Britain and Ireland to present a factual cold stage flora from the fossil record. The data provides a basis for an interpretation of the flora, vegetation and environments of some of the most extraordinary periods in the earth's most recent history, now only seen in the imperfect mirror of today's Arctic. This important study aims to reveal the nature of an environment, relatively stable, but totally different to that of today. As such it will be significant not only to those interested in the Quaternary, but also to a wider audience of those studying the present flora, fauna and environment, including climate and climatic change.