BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 205 
blance than is really the case. Although half the species of the 
Azores may be truly indigenous in the British Isles, it is to 
be recollected that the converse of this by no means holds 
true:the British species are so much more numerous, that 
one-half of the Azoric flora is equal only to about one-sixth 
of the British flora, taking them in round numbers ; and hence 
it may readily be conceived, that the many additional species 
. of Britain will cause a predominance of dissimilar forms in the 
floral physiognomy of our own island. This dissimilitude is 
yet more widened by the different degrees in rarity or preva- 
lence of those species which are found in both countries ; many 
of those which are accounted the rarities of one country being 
the vulgarities of the other. Forexample, many English 
botanists may pass their lives without meeting with plants of 
Polycarpon tetraphyllum, Senebiera didyma, Lotus diffusus, 
Cyperus longus, Briza minor, &c. &c., in a state of nature : 
they are found to be among the common weeds of the Azores. 
Itlikewise happens, in numerous instances, that the species 
Which are peculiar to one of the countries, constitute an im- 
portant, or leading character of the vegetation. In example 
Of this, it may be remarked, that not one of the trees or 
larger shrubs of Britain can be held certainly indigenous in 
the Azores; and the same remark would be equally true, if 
extended to a large proportion of our commonest and most 
conspicuous herbaceous plants. In turn, those shrubs and 
herbs which give a character to the Azoric landscape, belong 
usually to species, and often to genera, quite different from — 
those of Britain. Erica Azorica, the most generally distri- 
buted shrub of the Azores, and one which frequently attains 
the form and dimensions of a small tree, bears little resem- 
blance to any British species of Erica, unless it be to the 
Trish E. Mediterranea. A second very abundant shrub in 
Some of the islands, and also one of arborescent stature, is a 
Variety of the Juniperus Oxycedrus, which is far larger and 
more ornamental than the wild juniper of our own isles. In — 
these two characteristic shrubs there is, at least, a generic | 
