108 J. W. REED ON PLANTS COLLECTED IN THE PYRENEES. 



for existence. It would be an impertinence were I for one instant to 

 suppose myself competent to deal critically with the complex prob- 

 lems of plant distribution, but I could scarcely forbear to mention 

 as above and thus briefly the striking connection of a special portion 

 of our flora with that of the Pyrenees. 



In the Pyrenees we meet not only with plants well represented 

 in Britain, and belonging to large orders widely distributed, but 

 with others purely Pyrenean, or very rare, and of limited distribu- 

 tion. Some are seen which have been brought into general 

 cultivation, and plants as familiar as the common " London Pride " 

 of English gardens abound. 



The following plants belong exclusively to the Pyrenean region, 

 viz., Ramondia pyrenaica, Galium pyrenaicum, Antirrhinum molle, 

 Asperula hirta, Geum pyrenaicum, Viola cornuta, and Silene ciliata. 

 As to Lonicera pyrenaica, the type is probably confined to the 

 Pyrenees. 



I need scarcely add that, if one has travelled in Switzerland, 

 many old Alpine friends will also be found in the Pyrenees, and 

 here, as elsewhere, we cannot fail to notice the well-known ten- 

 dency of the flora at high levels to become smaller and low 

 growing, with stiff leaves and tough fibrous roots — the plants 

 generally being bitter to the taste and resinous. The flowers also, 

 in proportion to the size of the plants, are large and of brilliant 

 colour, due doubtless to their unconfined situation, the pure air, 

 and unobscured sunshine. 



We notice also a certain correspondence between the flora of 

 mountains and of high latitudes. As one ascends mountains the 

 rule is that the forms of lower levels are replaced by Alpine forms. 

 For instance, the birch trees of the lowlands are represented at 

 high levels by Betula nana, often only three inches high, and the 

 willows — trees or big bushes of the plains — are represented on our 

 own mountains by Salix herbacea and Salix reticulata, prostrate 

 shrubs only an inch or two high. These plants are, of course, 

 found in the lowlands of high latitudes. 



The rule referred to is not universal, for Sir Joseph D. Hooker, 

 in a lecture on " Insular Floras," has dwelt on the curious facts 

 that from a height of 4,000 feet on the mountains of Madeira to 

 their summits of 6,000 feet there is " little or none of that re- 

 placement," and that the mountains of the Canaries, nearly 

 11,000 feet high, contain no Alpine plants — that, indeed, the 



