J 



08 The Scottish Naturalist. 



7'iride, in humid but not elevated localities. As for Lifincea 

 borcalis, it is one of our commonest wayside flowers in Nova 

 Scotia ; and in the season when it is in bloom, one cannot walk 

 out into the country without seeing wreaths of it around hats to 

 keep off the mosquitoes, when the thermometer is standing far 

 above any ordinary British temperature. It is still more abun- 

 dant on the hot arid plains of Ontario, but only around ponds, 

 under trees, and in swamps. 



" Long years ago we pointed out that local humidity, not low 

 temperature, is what many of these supposed alpine or arctic 

 plants require. In America as the forests are cleared away they 

 disappear. In a country like Scotland, that lost its Lowland 

 forests so long ago, and has been cleared and cultivated for 

 ages, many of the native plants have no doubt been extirpated, 

 and others are to be seen only in the remnants left on undis- 

 turbed spots on the mountains." 



Similarly in Norway, many plants which in our own country 

 are only found on or near the summits of the highest hills, are 

 found growing by the wayside and in the fields. In Greenland 

 some forty or fifty species of what are counted as our rarest 

 alpines are growing at the sea-level. The explanation of this 

 must be sought for in climatic influences, altitude in our country 

 being equivalent to so many degrees of latitude in the Arctic 

 regions, where at sea-level a similar climate prevails to what is 

 found on the summits of our highest hills. 



The flora of our country, having relations with other parts of 

 Europe, has been divided into five geographical groups. Three 

 of these — viz., the Asturian, which has a few representatives in 

 the south-west of Ireland ; the Devonshire, on the south-west of 

 England and south-east of Ireland, and the Kentish flora in the 

 south of England — are so limited in their number that they need 

 only to be mentioned. The other two remaining groups consti- 

 tute the great bulk of the flora of our country : the Germanic, 

 which overruns all the lowlands, and the Scandinavian, which 

 forms our alpine or Highland flora, as a rule rarely descending 

 below 1500 feet of altitude, but in certain circumstances occa- 

 sionally coming even as low as sea-level, where, by climatic 

 influences, it is not so much exposed to contend with the 

 stronger lowland vegetation. 



On the other hand, the lowland or Germanic flora often 

 invades the domains of the alpine, many species ascending to 

 a height of 3000 feet and upwards ; but owing to the rigour of 



