Ixxii PROCEEUINGS OF THE 



constitutes the western extremity of that great Eusso-European 

 tract I have above commented upon, its flora, and probably also its 

 fauna, here blending with the West-European type, which spreads 

 more or less over it from the Iberian peninsula. To the south-east 

 she has an end of the Swiss Alps, connected to a certain degree with 

 the Pyrenees to the south-west by the chain of the Cevennes, but at 

 an elevation too low, and which has probably always been too low, 

 for the interchange of the truly alpine forms of those two lofty 

 ranges. South of the Cevennes she includes a portion of the great 

 Mediterranean region ; and the marine productions of her coasts are 

 those of three different aquatic regions — the North Sea, the Atlantic, 

 and the Mediterranean. The few endemic or local races she may 

 possess appear to be on those southern declivities which bound the 

 Mediterranean region ; and if the volcanic elevations of Central 

 France have a special interest, it is more from the absence of many 

 species common at similar altitudes in the mountains to the east or to 

 the south-west, than from the presence of peculiar races not of the 

 lowest grades, with the exception, perhaps, of a very few species 

 now rare, and which may prove to be the lingering remains of 

 expiring races. 



With so many natural advantages, French science, represented 

 during the last two centuries by as great, if not a greater number 

 of eminent men than any other country, has long felt the necessity 

 of a thorough investigation of the biological productions of her ter- 

 ritory. The French Floras, both general and local, are now nume- 

 rous, and some of them excellent. The geographical distribution of 

 plants in France has also been the subject of various essays as well 

 as separate works. It is only to be regretted that in the Floras 

 themselves the instructive practice of indicating under each species 

 its extra-Gallican distribution has not yet been adopted. In zoology, 

 no general fauna has been attempted since De Blainville's, which 

 was never completed ; and none is believed to be even in contempla- 

 tion ; but I have a long list of partial Faunas and memoirs on the 

 animals of various classes of several French departments; and Rey and 

 Mulsant are publishing, in the Transactions of two Lyons Societies, 

 detailed monographs of all French Coleoptera. 



The progress of French naturalists in Biology in general up to 

 1867 has been fully detailed as to zoology by Milne-Edwards, in his 

 ' Rapport sur les Progres de la Zoologie en France ;' and as to Syste- 

 matic Botany by Ad. Brongniart in his ' Rapport sur les Progres de 

 la Botanique Phytographique.' The recent progress as to both 

 branches, as well as in regard to other natural sciences, has ajso 



