80 



Cystea dentata. Very common. 



angustata. Scarce, in three places, viz., Gordale and Attennire Scarrs, and 



Catterick Force. 

 Asplenium viride, and the ramose variety, very common. 

 Grammitis Ceterach. On the rocks above Malham Tarn. 

 Bolrychium Lunaria. Abundant in Tarn-field pasture. 



Art. XXXIII.— Varieties. 



52. Botany of the Isle of Man. I am anxious through your pages (for all which, 

 yet published, I heartily thank you) to turn the attention of British botanists to a 

 tract, small indeed in extent, but of much importance in the Geography of British 

 plants, I mean the Isle of Man. Whether the geographical and geological relations 

 of that island oscillate between the three neighbouring countries — England, Scotland 

 and Ireland, as much as we know that it formerly gloried in making its politics do, I 

 shall not stay to enquire, but proceed to the only subject with which ' The Phytolo- 

 gist ' can have anything to do. It seems to me then that the Isle of Man, lying as it 

 does with relation to England, Scotland and Ireland, should be no bad field in which 

 to look for connecting links between the Floras of those three countries ; and one or 

 two hurried excursions made there confirm that belief. It is thirty miles West of St. 

 Bees, the nearest point in England; sixteen miles South of Burran, the nearest in 

 Scotland ; and twenty-seven East of Strangford, which is the nearest point of Ire- 

 land : so that if mere geography, or at least geographical position, were to guide our 

 conjectures, it would be, ci priori, a matter of guess more than of reasoning, to which 

 of the three the Isle of Man, in its Flora, would bear most relation. Midway between the 

 very northern part of England and that part of Ireland where its middle parallel of 

 latitude would cross it, and much nearer to Scotland than either, we find, first, two 

 plants decidedly characteristic (I believe) of Ireland and the South of England ; and 

 the third and prevailing one equally characteristic of Scotland. The two former are, 

 first, Pinguicula lusitanica, still to be found in bogs West of Douglas, and Adiantum 

 ' Capillus- Veneris, formerly growing at Glen Maij, near Peele ; while the prevailing 

 fern of the glens throughout the Isle is Osmunda regalis, of which I have repeatedly 

 gathered fronds seven and eight feet in length. The little history of Adiantum Ca- 

 pillus-Veneris as a Manx plant, is curious, and to me, who love plants for their own 

 sake, vexatious; and illustrates what, I dare say, Mr. Newman and the author whom 

 he quotes in his own account of Asplenium lanceolatum, intended by " the ravages of 

 unprincipled botanists," (British Ferns, 66). Some years ago, I think in 1835, I found 

 this graceful fern completely roofing a small cave on the left of the glen below the 

 waterfall at Glen Maij ; and sharing with my companion the pleasure of having made 

 this discovery (as I then thought it), I communicated it to a few brother botanists ; 

 one of whom, in return for my information, told me that it was no new discovery, for 

 that the station was given in the ' Flora Scotica ' a long while ago ; so it was, as I af- 

 terwards found, and it was given on the authority of one " Mr. Clark. " About two 

 years ago, when on my way home from the county of Kerry, Dr. Wood, of Cork, most 

 obligingly showed me his ample and well-kept herbarium of British plants, where one 

 of the first things I found was " Adiantum Capillus-Veneris. Glen Maij, Isle of 

 Man," with the date of (I think) 1809. This I took as a knock on the head to my 



