1 905-1906.] Scottish Mountam Plajits. 245 



an interesting subject — if known ! Little, however, need be 

 said, as the matter is largely conjecture. The majority of 

 plants are herbaceous, and leave no remains which can be 

 identified in geological strata. 



Since our present types of flowering-plants existed on the 

 earth, mountains, it may be assumed, have played a part in 

 their history and distribution. Were the vegetation to be 

 gradually destroyed by untoward circumstances, it does not 

 seem improbable that the last plants to remain, so far as land 

 forms are concerned, would be those of mountainous regions. 

 Some plants may even owe their existence to-day to the 

 varied range of the mountain climate, &c., these plants having 

 been able to spread towards the positions better fitted for 

 their life. 



Scottish Mountain Floe a: The Aectic Character. 



The vegetation of the mountains of Northern Britain re- 

 sembles in many respects that of the North of Europe. Those 

 familiar with the plants of the latter region find in Scotland 

 a fair replica — in some details scanty or wanting, it is true — 

 of the Farther North flora. The migration of many Arctic 

 plants into Britain is believed to have taken place during the 

 Glacial Period, when the greater part of Britain was sub- 

 merged, its higher land appearing as islands above the water. 

 These islands — now our mountains — were approached from 

 the north by vast ice sheets, their rf^&?"is-covered surfaces 

 serving as a means of plant-transportation between the two 

 countries. The ice-scratched rock-surfaces and various de- 

 posits of glacial drift, together with the living plants left on the 

 high lands or the ice, remain with us to this day as striking 

 relics of that Period. The greater number of these plants 

 that did reach Britain find their most extensive and congenial 

 home in Scotland. Some occur in England, especially in the 

 Northern counties, and some also in Wales, while a few 

 penetrate farther south — for example, the Crowberry (Em- 

 petrum nigrum), a relic in Sussex. The majority of such 

 plants have, however, fallen off long ere the Thames is 

 reached. 



Of some of these plants, plentiful farther north, Britain 



