SECT. 9. Botany. Since a small part only of this publication can be devoted to a scientific notice of the vegetable productions of the British Islands, we shall confine our remarks to such subjects as are of general interest, referring for more extended information to the "Outlines of the Geographical Distribution of British Plants,"* by H. C. Watson, Esq., and to Mr. Murray's "Encyclopædia of Geography." We have not thought it necessary to divide this article into separate heads for Englar.., Scotland, and Ireland, but have made it applicable to all three. Situated as the Islands of Great Britain are, between lat. 50° and 61° N., the 1,500 species of phænogamous plants which they are estimated to contain may naturally be expected to bear a considerable affinity with those of Germany, separated only by the German Ocean on the east, and those of the north of France, divided by the English Channel on the south; while, on the west, the vast Atlantic intervening between us and the similar latitudes on the continent of America, the species of plants will bear no sort of comparison: but, what is very remarkable, if a line be drawn from near the limits of perpetual snow, from the Alps of Switzerland and Savoy, in a northwesterly direction, across the summits of our highest mountains, along those of moderate elevation in Labrador and Arctic America, to the lowlands of the extreme northern portions of that vast continent and adjacent islands, a very considerable affinity will be found in the vegetation; and twenty or more species, all eminently alpine or boreal, may be found in such situations throughout the whole length. If we trace the more remarkable features of our vegetation from the south to the north, we shall find it influenced no less by climate than by soil, thus testifying the truth of what was long ago sung by the Mantuan bard :· The rocky cliff for the wild ash's reign; The baleful yew to northern blasts assigns, To shores the myrtles, and to mounts the vines." In the extreme south of England and of Ireland we find many plants incapable of bearing the cold of more northern latitudes. Hence the strawberry tree adorns the woods of Killarney and of Bantry, with its • Printed only for private distribution; but, through the liberality of the author, now in the hands of most persons to whom it can be useful. rich evergreen foliage and its copious red berries, and comes to such perfection that a trunk has been measured of 93 feet in girth. It is only in our most southern latitudes that we find the large-flowered butterwort (Pinguicula grandiflora); the beautiful ciliated heath (Erica ciliaris); the Cornish heath (E. vagans); the acrid lobelia (Lobelia urens); two species of rampion, the round-headed (Phyteuma orbicularis); and the spiked (P. spicata); the graceful little sibthorpia (S. Europæa); the marsh isnardia (I. palustris); the Cornish bladderseed (Physospernium Cornubiense); the least gentianella (Exacum filiforme); the whorled knotgrass (Illecebrum verticillatum); and the purple spurge (Euphorbia peplis). The following are among the most striking and ornamental of our native plants, which scarcely reach the middle of the kingdom, and fail below the south of Scotland: - The water soldier, with its curious spear-shaped leaves (Stratiotes aloides); the water violet (Hottonia palustris); the small maidenhair grass (Briza minor); the sweet violet," that loveliest herald of the spring" (Viola odorata); several kinds of mulleen (Verbiscum); the primrose-peerless (Narcissus poeticus and biflorus); the common snake's-head (Fritillaria Meleagris); the Agrostis setacea; the star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum Pyreniaicum); the two species of squill (Scilla autumnalis and bifolia); the mountain spiderwort (Anthericum serotinum); the Solomon's seal (Convallaria polygonatum); and sweet sedge (Acorus calamus); the yellow-wort (Chlora perfoliata); the mezereon (Daphne Mezereum); the flowering rush (Pentomus umbellatus); the yellow marshsaxifrage (Saxifraga Hirculus), though this is on the Continent a very arctic plant; the clove pink (Dianthus caryophylleus and D. prolifer); several catchflys (Silene); Euphorbias, Cistuses, Anemones, the traveller's joy (Clematis Vitalba); the ground pine (Ajuga Chamæpitys); the wood sage (Tencrium Scorodonia); the crested and field cow-wheat (Melampyrum cristatum and arvense); some Orobanches, the Vella annua, Draba aizoides, and Iberis amara; some fumitories (Fumaria solida, aurea, and parviflora); the yellow and crimson Vetchlings (Lathyrus Aphaca and Nissolia); the Vicia hybrida, lævigata, and Bithynica; Hippocrepis comosa; Orchis Morio, pyramidalis, ustulata, fusca, militaris, tephrosanthos, and hircina; Aceras anthropophora; Herminium monorchis; all the species of Ophrys; Epipactis rubra, Malaxis Loeselii; the beautiful and rare Lady's slipper (Cypripedium Calceolus); the birthwort (Aristolochia Clematitis); the Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera); the Xanthium strumarium and Amaranthus Blitum; the Spanish Chestnut tree (Fagus Castanea); and misseltoe (Viscum album); the sea buckthorn (Hippophæ rhamnoides); and white poplar (Populus canescens). The country of which these plants are the produce, including, however, the lowlands of Scotland, is distinguished by Mr. Watson as the woody region; which, he elegantly remarks, from one end to the other, "is an undulated plain of meadows, pastures, and cultivated fields, separated from each other by hawthorn hedges or stone walls, and thickly interspersed with parks, woods, gardens, towns, and high roads, altogether betokening a climate where man may attain a high state of civilisation, and live for ease and pleasure, as well as for laborious occupations. It is the region where flourish the trees and bloom the flowers rendered classic by our poets, and not the less loved by many of us, that their very commonness has made them familiar by vernacular names, without the aid of botanical systems or a dead language. It is, par excellence, the land of the daisy and cowslip, the oak and hawthorn, the hazel copse and the woodbine bower: the region of fruits and flowers, where the trees of the forest unite a graceful beauty with strength and majesty, and where the fresh green-sward of the pasture, commingling with the yellow waves of the cornfield, tells to us that here at least The cheek of spring Smiles in the kiss of autumn." "Black swampy moors, such as deface so large a portion of the next, or barren, region, are in this of comparatively rare occurrence and small extent. The downs and chases, in early spring, are covered with the countless blossoms of the golden gorse, or the more gaudy broom, and empurpled with the different kinds of heath during summer and autumn. Little, indeed, as we may regard these shrubs, in Sweden and North Russia the gorse is prized as we prize the myrtles of the south; and our common heaths (Erica cinerea and E. Tetralix) are unknown over a wide extent of Europe: nor does the whole of America produce a single specimen either of these or any other species of heath. The oak, ash, yew, hornbeam, alders, elms, poplars, and willows are the principal native trees of this region; the four first gradually yielding to the pine, white birch, and rowan, as we approach the higher portions, forming the upland zone. The beech, sycamore, and chestnut have been introduced, and the two first now spring up self-sown and readily. A climate in which the heat of summer is rarely excessive, and where rain and clouds are so frequent, is unadapted to the spontaneous growth of fruits; and we accordingly find our native productions poor in the extreme. The wild cherry, crab, bullace, and native pear are the arborescent fruit trees. The raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, sloe, hazel-nut, hip and haw form a very indifferent catalogue for our shrubby and herbaceous fruit plants. The craneberry, bilberry, and crowberry, with the fruit of the rowan and juniper, common to this and the barren region, are greatly surpassed by one fruit, almost peculiar to the latter, viz. the cloudberry. The changes produced by cultivation, on some of the firstmentioned fruits, it is unnecessary to detail. Lastly, the different kinds of gooseberries and currants cultivated in our gardens are probably derived from species indigenous to Britain, and are very apt to spring up in our woods and hedges from translated seeds." Ireland is remarkable among the British Isles for producing exclusively certain plants, which are otherwise peculiar to the most southern continent of Europe, such as the strawberry-tree and largeflowered butterwort, above mentioned; the Irish Menziesia (Menziesia pelifolia); London pride (St. Patrick's cabbage of the Irish, Saxifraga umbrosa); the kidney-shaped saxifrage (S. Geum), and its varieties; as well as the fringed sandwort (Arenaria ciliata), an inhabitant of mountains, upon the Continent; and what is more extraordinary, unless there has been some mistake about the plants in question, Professor Giesckè is stated to have found the naked-stalked yellow poppy (Papaver nudicaule) and the marsh ledum (Ledum palustre) upon the rocks of Achil head; whereas, in other parts of the world, these plants are very alpine or very arctic. The Irish yew and the Irish furze, both well known in our gardens, may be considered rather as varieties of the common yew and common furze, than as distinct species. The vegetation of the lowlands of Scotland scarcely differs, as may be supposed, from that of the north of England. The valleys in the north are filled with the remains of the ancient fir forests, and many of these are still of great extent. The Pinus sylvestris, of which they are composed (our only native fir), attains to an elevation on the mountains of 1050 feet, the oak 700, beech 750, alder about 900 feet, birch 1100, ash and sycamore 900, and hawthorn 800 feet. The extensive moors are empurpled with the autumnal blossoms of three species of heaths (Erica Tetralix, cinerea, and vulgaris, the latter Calluna vulgaris of Salisbury). Quitting, then, the belt or zone of our more hardy trees, and ascending the summit of our highest mountains, at an elevation of 4,300 feet (consequently below the limits of perpetual snow), we find the vegetation gradually assuming a more alpine character. Gnaphalium dioicum, Empetrum nigrum, Rubus Chamamorus, with Vaccinium Vitis Idæa, Leontodon palustre, Aira alpina (often viviparous) and Festuca vivipara, Epilobium alpinum, Cerastium alpinum and latifolium, Rhodiola rosea, Cochlearia officinalis and Statice Armeria, (the three latter species being equally found on rocky places and upon our sea-coasts), Cherleria sedoides, Saussurea alpina, Saxifraga stellaris, nivalis, rivularis, and oppositifolia ; the beautiful alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), Veronica alpina, the brilliant V. saxatilis; Erigeron alpinum, Sibbaldia procumbens, the silver-leaved lady's mantle (Alchemilla alpina), which is often washed down by the rains to a much lower elevation; Silene acaulis, of the beauty of which, forming purple cushions some feet in diameter, no one can form a conception without visiting its native place of growth; Salix herbacea, the humblest of our arborescent plants, and scarcely attaining a height, or, rather, length of a few inches, often scarcely visible but from its bright-coloured catkins; Luzula spicata; and, what may perhaps be reckoned the most alpine of all our flowering-plants, Luzula arcuata, inhabiting the same regions as constitute the summer residence of the ptarmigan and the white or alpine hare. Plants peculiar to Scotland, and not inhabiting either England or Ireland, are Veronica fruticulosa, saxatilis, and alpina; several alpine grasses and other glumaceous plants, such as Phleum alpinum and Alopecurus alpinus; Eriophorum alpinum; Juncus arcticus, castaneus and biglumis, and Luzula arcuata; Primula Scotica, Myosotis alpestris, Azalea procumbens, Gentiana nivalis, Sibbaldia procumbens, Convallaria verticillata, Epilobium alpinum, Arbutus alpina, Pyrola uniflora, Saxifraga nivalis and rivularis, Stellaria scapigera (the latter is exclusively British); Arenaria rubella and fastigiata, the Cherleria sedoides, Lychnis Viscaria and alpina, Spergula saginoides, Potentilla opaca, Nuphar Kalmiana, Ranunculus alpestris, Ajuga pyramidalis, Cardamine bellidiflora, Orobus niger, Astragalus Uralensis and campestris, Erigeron alpinum, Corallorhiza innata, Achillea tomentosa, Goodyera repens; the most alpine Carices and Salices; and dwarf birch (Betula nana). Two plants of Scotland deserve particular notice, as found nowhere else in Europe: these are Potentilla tridentata, abundant in arctic America, and upon the rocky and white mountains; and Eriocaulon septangulare. This latter genus is mostly tropical, or a native of the warm temperate zones in America, the East Indies, and Australia. The only exceptions to this rule are the Eriocaulon pellucidum of Michaux, and the plant in question; the former being found in North America, as high as Canada: and, upon examination, the two species prove identical. In these instances, the Eriocaulon and the Potentilla seem to have overcome many obstacles in their migration, and to have reached their eastern boundary. The Eriocaulon is confined to a few lakes in the Hebrides, where we have been surprised, in the month of September, to observe the high temperature of the water, which never freezes; and to some spots in |