British Island s^ Shetland ^ Feroe^ and Iceland. 43 



once on the coasts of the polar lands and on the snow-crowned 

 summits of the Alps of central Europe. 



4. Germanic Type. — It is this which predominates in Eng- 

 land, and forms, so to speak, the very basis of the vegetation. 

 Originating from the north of France and Germany, these 

 plants have occupied the greatest part of England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, as formerly the Saxons invaded the country of 

 the Angles in order to substitute themselves in their room. 

 If it be true that the aboriginal masters of the country dis- 

 appeared after the invasion, it is, perhaps, also the case that 

 the plants of Germany extinguished those which formed the 

 primitive vegetation of these islands. With the lapse of time 

 the Germanic type has become so predominant, that the 

 greater part of English botanists designate it by the name of 

 the British type. But a certain number of plants belonging 

 to this type have not crossed the strait which separates Eng- 

 land from Ireland, while the rest of the migration surmount- 

 ed this obstacle. Those species, common on the English 

 coast bordering St George's Channel, are unknown on the 

 opposite coast of Ireland. 



The studies of the zoologist tend to confirm, in every point, 

 the inductions drawn from botany. Certain animals widely 

 spread in Germany are restricted in England to regions where 

 the Germanic flora exclusively prevails ; thus the common 

 hare, the squirrel, the dormouse, and mole, are confined to 

 England, and do not occur in Ireland. Five species only re- 

 present the class of reptiles in that island. Eleven of them 

 exist in England and twenty-two in Belgium, the point whence 

 the Germanic migration took its departure. The living mol- 

 luscs, such as the different species of Helix and Clausilia, 

 are distributed in the same manner. 



The maritime fauna and flora obey all the laws which regu- 

 late the distribution of vegetables and land animals. Certain 

 genera of marine Algae, proper to the southern counties, are 

 found only on the western coasts of England ; and we there find 

 species of fishes which never go beyond the Straits of Dover 

 or St George's Channel. These are the Neptunian repre- 

 sentatives of the Asturian and Armorican types. In like 

 manner the herring, cod, and coalfish, abound only in the 



