tion of British Plants chiefly in connexion | western ocean. The two longitudinal divisions with Latitude, Elevation, and Climate." In were then transversely subdivided into PROthe present work, the first volume of which VINCES, or groups of counties which together appeared in 1847, the author enters more constitute the basin of a principal river, or minutely into the characters of their distri- have some other physical peculiarity in combution, and in his introductory remarks ex- mon. The medial line was not continued plains the origin of the title. He considers northward of Inverness, where Scotland be"the study of geographical botany, or in- comes very narrow, and counties extend from vestigations into the distributions of plants the east to the west coast. The wide county over the surface of the earth as a branch of of Inverness itself, also extending from east knowledge distinct from that which is more to west, is bisected by the line; the eastern exclusively concerned with the technical portion (Moray, including the small counclassification and description of species. ties of Elgin and Nairn) being thus divided This study has been variously denominated from the western portion." By this mode 'Phytography,' 'Botanical Geography,' of proceeding, our author has constituted Geographical Botany,' and 'Geographical eighteen PROVINCES, the first of which is Distribution of Plants.' These compound termed the "Peninsula," and includes Cornnames are all of them objectionable, they wall, Devon and Somerset, and the last, are inconveniently long for titles of books, "the North Isles," includes the Hebrides, and none of them can be said sufficiently Orkney and Shetland. These subdivisions, express the scope of the present work. it must be noticed, are unconnected with The author ventures, therefore, to substitute physical condition, arbitrary in their groupthe mythological name of CYBELE; that is ing, and calculated to distract by the novelty the name of the goddess who was supposed of their titles. Who would expect to find the to preside over the productions of the earth. county of Ayr among the "West Lowlands, The name of Flora' has long been used for or Hebrides in the North Isles ?" The reasons those catalogues of plants in which are descri- assigned for this peculiar mode of mapping bed the species of any definite section of are by no means satisfactory, and not calthe earth; that of Cybele' appears quite as culated to render more minute or accurate applicable to one which is intended to show our acquaintance with native plants. their relations to the earth as local productions of the ground and climate."

to

We do not consider it a subject of sufficient interest to investigate the relative merits of the rivals Flora and Cybele. There is much in a good name, but sometimes in science there appears to be a peculiar charm about a new one.

In the arrangement of British plants aocording to the ascending or climate zones, our author has experienced difficulties which he very candidly acknowledges:—

On

"On a single mountain, as we have seen, local changes in the character of its surface, and the difference of aspect on its declivities, will disturb the regularity of its ascending zones. an extended range of mountains the disturbing effect of local peculiarities will become much more obvious. And when we have to adapt our zones to several groups of mountains, dissimilar in extent, elevation, latitude, maritime proximity, and other circumstances, it then becomes difficult to define them with any exactness. This difficulty is experienced in tracing the ascending zones of plants in Britain. The absolute eleva tion at which the same species will grow, varies by many hundred feet on different mountains And as this variation is by no means uniform with different species, we find local changes in their relative elevation also, the limit of one be

The author, for the accomplishment of his object, has found it necessary to change the conventional arrangement of the surface of our island, observing, "The counties being thus too numerous, while the three ancient political divisions (England, Wales, Scotland) are too few and unequal for the object of this work, an intermediate set of sections be came necessary,-larger than mere counties -smaller than kingdoms. In fixing upon such intermediate sections, it has appeared most convenient to make them in conformity with the old established divisions into kingdoms and counties; as much regard being compared with the limit of another. Noting still given to the physical geography of Britain as is consistent with the prescribed rule. In forming these sections a medial line was first traced from the south coast of England, northwards into the Highlands of Scotland; the line corresponding with the boundaries of counties, and being traced in that course which would best divide the counties whose rivers flow to the east coast, from those whose waters are emptied into the

general rule will be found true, that a species withstanding such local exceptions, however, the which rises higher than another on one range of mountains, will usually be found higher on other ranges; and the commoner the species, the more exact is the rule found to be.

"As before explained, it is upon the prevailing regularity of this fact or rule, that the clithe presence or absence of some common and mate zones of plants are founded and defined; conspicuous species being made the test of the zone. The primary division which is here to be

"Arctics,-found only in the arctic region.
"Arctic-Agrarians,--found in both regions,
"Agrarians,-found only in the agrarian regions."

proposed, as one best applicable in Britain, is ostensibly founded upon an artificial character, namely the presence or absence of cultivation. It is by this character that we may distinguish the lower from the upper zones of plants; giv- Our readers will have little difficulty in ing to the former the common designation of Agrarian, and calling the latter by the name of perceiving that these divisions of plants Arctic zones; or, to prevent confusion with sub-into regions in a descending series, is little ordinate divisions, it may be well to say, in more than a very rude approximation to a the first instance, Agrarian regions and Arctic mode of grouping, varying with every regions. mountain side, soil, exposure, and wind. The same remark is equally applicable to those regions the latitude of which regulates the arrangement. In both cases the apparently phraseology employed, betrays the incautious reader into the belief that the boundaries assigned are nearly as well marked as the Parliamentary limits of a borough, or the separating land marks of contiguous counties. But let our author

In the spontaneous vegetation of Britain, we can find no character equally obvious and general with that afforded by the cultivation of grain. The interests of mankind are so intimately connected with the production of corn, that we shall everywhere find cultivated fields as far up the valleys and acclivities of the mountains as their climate will allow. No doubt we may see many spots where the nature of the soil and surface, rather than the climate, forbids success in cultivation. But a correct observer can scarcely be misled in such instances, since he will usually find cultivation sufficiently near those spots, to show that it has not been prevented by inferiority of climate. Moreover, nature will afford us a second test of the agrarian region, by the presence of a very comand conspicuous fern, the Pteris aquilina. This fern is distributed throughout the region, and from one extremity of our island to the other; its upper limit usually running nearly uniform with the climate limit of corn cultivation, so that the two characters in connexion form a satisfactory test of the regions. The plough is soon fatal to the Pteris, nor can it long resist the attack of the scythe in early summer; but we require its presence as a character only in those spots which remain uninvaded by scythe or ploughshare, and in such spots we seek in vain, until arriving about the line where climate duly arrests the ascent of agriculture.

definite

state his own case:

"In addition to their distribution by provinces and climatic zones, there is a third mode of indicating the geographical relations of plants, which may also require some explanation. It has been before observed, that certain species are spread over the whole island, while others are limited to one, two, three or more provinces. The same holds true in the zones; some species occurring in all of them, others in one or more. Perhaps no two species have exactly the same distribution or relative frequency; and yet certain general similarities may be traced, by which the species may be grouped together, under a few leading types of distribution."

The author now assigns the following titles to his types:-1. British Type. 2. English Type. 3. Scottish Type. 4. High

Among the Highland mountains the high-land Type. est spot at which the cultivation of grain has been observed by the writer of these pages, was at the outlet of Loch Callater, estimated to be 1600 feet above the level of the sea. Potatoes can scarcely be grown in Drumochter Pass, which is calculated at 1530 feet above the level of the sea, and is much more shadowed by mountains, than is the outlet of Loch Callater. From 1000 to 1200 feet is more frequently the actual limit of corn and potatoes in the Highlands. In one sheltered spot, in the woods of Lochnagar, the pteris was observed at 1900 feet, and in another part of the same woods at 1700 fest. On exposed moors of the Highlands generally, it is very seldom seen above 1200 feet, unless in hollow depressions, or on those declivities which front to the sun. On open moors the Myrica gale will rise higher than the pteris; having been seen at 1700 feet on a bleak exposure in the forest of Drumochter, which forms a part of the northern declivities of the central Grampians, and is stamped by the impoverished or arctic character of the vegetation at comparatively moderate altitudes. More frequently the Myrica gale ceases at 1400 or 1500 feet. Upon these two regional divisions, we may found an arrangement of species into three climatic groups, thus:

5. Germanic Type. 6. Atlantic Type. 7. Local or Doubtful Type. Having disposed of these groups, and in connexion with this subject, he very freely accuses Professor Edward Forbes as having, in a hypothetical essay on the origin and migration of British plants, taken "to himself credit for results and generalizations which had truly originated with the author of the present work." In the temper of one suffering under the influence of a conviction of plagiarism, he characterizes Mr. Forbes's essay as consisting of "borrowed facts, misunderstood and applied by a forgetive imagination which make up the botanical illustrations in favour of the hypothesis. And thus so far from really establishing that hypothesis upon any sound botanical evidence, the second attempt is indeed, little better than a burlesque upon the vegetable geography of Britain, by the partial selection of the facts adduced, their inaccuracy or inapplicability, and inattention to those climatal requirements of the species, which must of themselves constitute insuperable

objections against the soundness of the hy-distribution might then appropriately find a pothesis respecting their origin and migra- place and room in a work of that more tions. In short, considering the small num- comprehensive and necessarily less detailed ber of the pages in Mr. Forbes's second character. His investigations have not essay, which are devoted to the botanical hitherto led him to adopt the current opinbearings of the subject, it absolutely teems ion (or, rather, mere guess) that the flora of with errors in its botany-inconclusive ar- the British islands has been derived from the guments, inconsequent logic, inept illustra- opposite countries of the Continent,-at tions, and the guesswork of the imagination least not to any greater proportionate exput forth ostensibly as the ascertained facts tent than the floras of those countries may of science." be said to have been derived from Britain. We do consider the merit of Mr. Wat- Interchange has most likely taken place; son, in having either in his "Remarks," or Britain giving as well as receiving." in his Cybele, distributed British plants into The subject to which our author here retypes, as of small amount. Whoever has fers has, of late years, been somewhat examined, with any degree of care, the loca prominently brought forward, and as it is one natalia of the "Philosophia Botanica" of of deep interest, in connexion with the peoLinnæus, or Adanson's preface to his "Fa- pling of the globe, we shall conclude our milles des Plantes" must have been prepar- labours at present, by making a few remarks ed for the groups exhibited in the "Cybele," on some of its more prominent features. especially if he followed up his researches The celebrated naturalist of Sweden, by a study of the generalizations of Wallen- Linne, entertained the opinion that the dry berg, Wildenow, and Humboldt. By the land was continually increasing by the sinkaid, however, of even the earlier works, our ing or decrease of the waters, and concludauthor's labours in constructing either his ed, "that instead of the present wide ex"Remarks" or his "Cybele," required in- tended regions, one small island was only dustry rather than originality; while, under in the beginning raised above the surface of the guidance of Schow, and aided by Tur- the waters." And he adds, "If we trace ner's "Botanist's Guide," the composition of back the multiplication of all plants and his useful work became scarcely more than animals as we did that of mankind, we must a mechanical operation, conducted, however, stop at our original pair of each species. by one to whom the subject was familiar in There must therefore have been in this all its bearings. We may add, that Pro- island a kind of living museum, so furnishfessor E. Forbes's reference to Mr. Wated with plants and animals, that nothing son's labours are decided and complimen- was wanting of all the present produce of tary. the earth. Whatever nature yields for the

In the "introductory explanations" to the use or pleasure of mankind, was here prethird volume of the "Cybele," the author sented to our first parents; they were theregives us ground to hope that he may yet fore completely happy. If that favoured furnish us with details, illustrative of the man was obliged to acquire the knowledge areas of distribution of our native plants, in of all these things in the same order, and reference to other portions of the earth, according to the same laws of nature to where they occur. We earnestly hope that which we are subject, that is, by means he may have life, leisure, and zeal to exe- of the external senses, he must have taken cute the task. "The causes (he says) that a view of the nature, form, and qualities of now continue the existing distribution of each animal, in order to distinguish it by a plants over the surface of the earth, or those suitable name and character; so that the chief that have originally and gradually deter- employment of the first man, in this garden mined their distribution, are too wide in or museum of delight, was to examine the their influence to admit of being properly admirable works of his Creator." treated in a work devoted to the plants of Wildenow adopted the notion that every one small country, and to their distribution primitive mountain was the centre of the within that limited space only. Should the origin of peculiar species, so that the numauthor have life and leisure to carry out his ber of floras would be co-extensive with the present wishes, and enduring inclination distribution of such ancient elevations. Aoadequate to the task, he may perhaps write cording to this view of the original localities a' British and Foreign Cybele' for the pur- of species, the migration of the individuals pose of tracing the distribution of British took place from the respective summits tospecies over other parts of the earth, and of wards the plains, and thus a general distri showing the true relation borne by the flora bution, according to circumstances, took of Britain to the floras of neighbouring place over the surfaces of contiguous dis countries. The causes or conditions of their tricts.

Dr. Hooker, in his valuable FLORA ANT-| "I offer no comment on these three great ARCTICA, specifically refers to the subject in facts, (he should modestly have called them the following passage. "If species, genera, assertions,) which I present for the considerand small natural orders were sporadic, re-ation of the few naturalists who doubt the curring wherever climate and soil presented doctrine of specific centres. The general similar conditions, several points of origin and traditional belief of mankind has confor the same species might be assumed. nected the idea of descent with that of disBut it is not so: species, genera and orders tant kinds, or species of creatures; and the are distributed within geographical limits, abandonment of this doctrine would place according to the extent; the great mass or in a very dubious position, all evidence the individual plants in the one case, and of paleontologist could offer to the geologist, forms in the other, appears to have sprung towards the comparison and identification of from single centres, in the former case from the epoch of their formation. a common parent, and to have radiated from Moreover, it is notorious that the docone point to greater or less distances around | trine of more than one point of origin for a it, in proportion to the facilities for migra- single species, and consequently more than tion and absence of checks to diffusion. The one primogenitor for the individuals of it, explanation of exceptions to this prevailing sprung out of apparent anomalies and diffirule must then be sought for in some natural culties in distribution, such as those I am cause, capable of counteracting the general about to show can be reasonably accounted law, and not what, if adopted for the case for, without having recourse to such a supof one species must be conceded with re- position." spect to all, and consequently force us to Although in the last paragraph of the quoconclude that two classes of agents are re-tation, the author assures us that he can quired to effect our object, namely, the dis- reasonably account for the difficulties which persion of vegetables." have prevented converts to the hypothesis which he advocates, yet he afterwards confesses-"It cannot be expected that in this stage of the inquiry all exceptional cases in our flora and fauna can be explained. There are several extremely difficult of explana tion, but they are neither so numerous nor of sufficient importance to affect the general argument, and may safely be put aside for the present, in the certainty that the progress of research will ere long make clear the most doubtful."

Professor Edward Forbes, in a speculative paper already referred to, "On the connexion between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the geographical changes which have affected their area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift," published in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, (1846,) furnishes the following startling announcement, "In the following remarks on the history of the indigenous fauna and flora of the British Islands and the neighbouring sea, I take for granted the existence of specific centres, i. e., of certain geographical points from which the individuals of each species have been diffused. This indeed must be taken for granted, if the idea of a species (as most naturalists hold) involves the idea of the relationship of all the individuals composing it, and their consequent descent from a single progenitor, or from two, according as the sexes might be united or distinct."

"That this view is true, the following facts go far to prove. 1st, Species of opposite hemispheres placed under similar conditions, are representative and not identical; 2d, Species occupying similar conditions in geological formations far apart, and which are not met with in the intermediate formations, are representative and not identical; 3d, Wherever a given assemblage of conditions, to which, and to which only, certain species are adapted, and continuous, whether geographically or geologically, identical species range throughout.

In all these references to the speculations of the preceding naturalists, it will be observed that the individuals of the different species are considered as having derived their origin according to their kind from a single plant or pair, as the sexes were sepa rate or conjoined; and that the individuals proceeding from these pairs, having multiplied, migrated from their common, or spe cific centre, to the different localities, within the area of their distribution, which they

now occupy.

The learned Professor of Botany in the London University, from whose speculative paper we have made the preceding quotations, distributes the plants of Britain into five well-marked floras, and by this arrangement paves the way for assigning to the different species the central spot of their ances tral creation. Some of the plants of the west and south-west of Ireland, being identical with Spanish species, he derives from that country, and supposes that they passed over to their present habitation when there was no gulf, and nothing but dry land between

Asturias and the Green Isle. This portion and St. George's Channel had not taken of our flora he terms the ASTURIAN TYPE. place during the process of westerly migraThree assumptions are here introduced, and tion, and thus prevented many species, with are of a piece with what the author terms more limited travelling power, from reach"grand facts." The first is the existence of ing the localities which their former associ specific centres; secondly, that these cen- ates had succeeded in occupying. tres were in Spain not Ireland, and consequently that the migration was in a westerly direction; and, thirdly, that a convenient passage was afforded them, during their transit, by continuous land instead of a now stormy sea.

The plants of the south-west of England and the south-east of Ireland, which constitute the region of the Devon Flora, or NORMAN TYPE, together with the plants of the south-east of England, characterized as the Kentish or NORTH FRENCH TYPE, are all assumed as having migrated from France ere the Straits of Dover were formed, and when this country was conjoined in surface with France. Our remarks on the origin of the plants of the Asturian Type, being applicable, need not be repeated here.

To those who feel amused at this game of "geological ninepins," we have no observation to offer. Along with our soberminded readers, however, we must lament that such outrages against the inductive philosophy can be committed with impunity. There seems to be an utter unconsciousness of any difference existing between a fact and a fiction, and hence, adopting an assumption in the first instance, the mind fearlessly proceeds with supposition after supposition, until it has reared its baseless fabric. Apart altogether from these geological suppositions or dreams, the supporters of this ideal migration of plants have several very formidable difficulties to contend with, to two of which only we shall at present refer.

The manner in which the individuals of a The flora constituting the ALPINE TYPE species are scattered over the area of their comprises plants which are located on the distribution deserves particular attention. Scottish mountains, and on those of Cumber- They sometimes occur in nearly continuous land and Wales. This type has exercised sheets, so that their origin from a single the imagination to a much greater extent centre may not be difficult to account for. than when necessary to unite Ireland with But in other cases, as we have already statSpain, or England with France. It is as-ed, the individuals of a species are found sumed that at this period all the districts of occupying irregular patches, of different dithe north portions of Europe and Britain mensions, with interspaces frequently of were submerged in the sea, with the excep- many miles in extent. Thus, Dr. Hooker, tions of a few projecting points or islets. The sea was an icy one, and from those peaks scattered over its surface, the specific centres of our Alpine plants, proceeded the individuals of the different species on icebergs and glacial plains, chiefly from the Scandinavian Alps, and peopled the lower hills as the process of the elevation of the land proceeded. These Alpine plants, in consequence of the difficulties of migration, appear to diminish in number as we retire from their sources or specific centres. The assumptions here are too numerous to escape observation, and too extravagant to need

comment.

When the frozen period terminated, and the upheaved bed of the glacial sea exhibited Germany, Britain, and Ireland a continuous country, then the plants of central and western Europe, which the cold of the adjacent sea had not destroyed, began to people the new formed land, invade the older provinces, and to become "overspread and commingled " with the floras of the other provinces. These species constitute the GERMANIC TYPE. They would have been greatly more numerous in Britain and Ireland, it is said, if the formation of the German Ocean

in the "Flora Antarctica," (vol. ii. p. 260,) says of the Lathyrus maritimus, "The English channel seems its southern European limit, whence it passes along the shore of Belgium and up the Baltic Sea, and inhabits the east coast of Norway as far as 70°, becoming more frequent beyond the parallel of 60°; eastward of the north cape again, it is plentiful throughout Lapland, to the Sea of Archangel, but does not cross the longer side of the Ural Mountains; thence to the Sea of Okholsk, that is all over the Siberian plains, it is replaced by the Lathyrus pisiformis, L. (fide Ledebour,) but reappears to the extreme east of the continent of Asia in Okholsk and Kamschatka." The same author in another page (210) of the same volume, in a note, says, "There are, however, instances of sudden change in the vegetation occurring, unaccompanied with any diversity of geological or other feature. The river Obi in Siberia, whose direction is towards the north-west, from the latitude of 50° to 67°, affords a most remarkable in-, stance of this phenomenon, first mentioned by Gmelin and afterwards by Humboldt. Some of the most conspicuous trees attain either of its banks, but do not cross them;