OF THE BEITISH FLORA. 135 



I. Of the first of these extensions South Australia contains 100 

 indigenous plants common to Great Britain, in addition to which a 

 large number have become naturalised ; Tasmania contains 56, New 

 Zealand has 92, and Kerguelen's Land, 8 ; while Auckland and 

 Campbell Islands possess 6. A curious fact worth notice is that in 

 South-eastern Australia, European species form oVth nearly of the 

 whole flora ; but in South-western Australia they constitute to oth 

 only ; while in Tasmania they amount to -rs-th. In Tasmania 

 the following British plants occur, which are not found in 

 Australia : — Ranunculus aquatilis, Montia fontana, Hierochloe 

 horealis. On the other hand, the Victoria Alps of Australia 

 contain fifteen European species not found in Tasmania, and all 

 but one are British plants. 



II. With regard to the extension of British plants from 

 Europe to the Cape, commencing with Morocco we find 344 

 present there, while in northern Africa generally, which is 

 largely "Mediterranean" in character, there are 420 British 

 plants. JN^orth-east Africa and Abyssinia appear to yield about 

 90 British species. On the west coast of Africa, the little island 

 of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea was found to contain, 

 on " Clarence Peak," at above 5000 feet elevation, 76 species of 

 plants, of which number 56 species of 45 genera belong to a 

 temperate flora. Their affinity is curiously much more with the 

 plants of Abyssinia and of the Mauritius than with those of the 

 adjacent west coast of Africa ! Of the temperate flora a large 

 proportion are European, and the following seven are British : — 

 Oxalis corniculata, Sanicula europcBa, Galium Aparine, Limosella 

 aquatica, Liizula campestn's, Aira C(espitosa, Brachijpodium sylvati- 

 cum. Of the South African flora, including the portion of land 

 from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Cape, 27 species are British. 



III. In the third great extension of land, Greenland contains 

 210 (Iceland has 335), while British plants abound in arctic 

 British America, as in Siberia, even Parry's Island (76° North 

 latitude) containing 32. The number decreases as the warmer 

 regions are reached ; thus Mr. Drummond* records only 40 British 

 plants in the Western States. In tropical America (including the 

 temperate and alpine regions of the Cordillera from Mexico to 

 Peru) there are 35 British plants, of which the following eight 

 are common with tropical Asia : — Cardamine hirsuta, Stellar ia 

 neinorum, S. media, Ceratophyllum demersum, Polygonum Persi- 

 caria, Jimcus hufonius, Scirpus lacustris, Phragmites communis. In 

 extra-tropical South America, however, there are no less than 64 

 British species, while in Fuegia and the Falkland Islands there are 

 24. Of the British plants common to these three greatest exten- 

 sions of land there are common to Australia, etc., and Africa, 17 ; 

 common to Australia and South America, 35 ; common to South 

 Africa and South America, 19; common to all three extensions, 

 15. Lastly there have been found a few British plants in islands 



■ Hooker's ' Journal of Botany,' vol. i, p. 185. 



