158 ON THE MIGRATION OF PINGUICULA GBAXDIFLORA. 



the pond to where I had absolutely confined my specimens, a fine 

 health y plant of the Pinguiciila with numerous vigorous flower- 

 stalks had made its appearance. There is no possibility of the 

 plant having been accidentally dropped there ; and the only ex- 

 planation I can offer is that it was carried there by a bird. 



If this explanation be the true one, we have an important 

 fact in the migration of a plant with a geographical distribution 

 so limited and remarkable as that of Pinguiciila grandiflora being 

 thus effected through the agency of birds. 



I have reason to believe that the Irish area has been gradu- 

 ally extending itself in an easterly direction ; for the plant is 

 now found considerably to the east of the limits within which 

 the Irish botanists of the earlier part of the present century 

 had supposed it to be confined — a fact which the transporting 

 agency of birds would help to explain. 



I believe that many parts of Dorsetshire and Hampshire are 

 as well adapted to the growth of Pinguicula as the regions to 

 which its natural distribution is at present confined, the Spanish 

 peninsula with the northern slopes of the Pyrenees and the south- 

 western parts of Ireland. 



Many of the rarer bog-plants with which it is associated in its 

 Irish locality are also found here, such as Parts ia viscosa, Ana- 

 gallis tenella, Campanula hederacea, Madiola millegrana, Pinguicula 

 lusitanica y and TJtricularia minor. 



I am not aware of living specimens having been hitherto intro- 

 duced into this part of England ; and it is possible that with their 

 tendency to migrate, my plants may become a centre from which 

 Pinguicula grandiflora may establish itself in the moors of Dorset- 

 shire and Hampshire. No one can regret the extension of so 

 beautiful a plant ; but as its occurrence in the south of England 

 may become a source of perplexity to the future student of phyto- 

 geography, I have thought it my duty to place on record the 

 date and manner of its introduction. 



