.496 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



OUTLINES 



OF THE 



BOTANY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



{Reprinted from STANFORD'S " NEW GUIDE TO THE 

 ISLE OF WIGHT."] 



FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS. 



OWING to the varied nature of its soil, and the endless diversity of its 

 surface, the Isle of Wight offers to the botanist a field of the highest 

 interest. Its position, too, at the extreme south of England and midway 

 between the eastern and western Floras,* give it, with an extended coast 

 line, peculiar advantages : and now that the vegetation of the island 

 has been so thoroughly explored by so accomplished a botanist as Dr. 

 Bromfield, through whose labours its soil may be almost said to have 

 become classic ground, there is perhaps no better opportunity for 

 studying indigenous plants than is afforded by a short stay in this 

 favoured locality. 



From its vicinity to the mainland, the Flora of the Isle of Wight 

 does not evince in any marked degree an insular character, and differs 

 but little from that of Hampshire. It is the somewhat larger proportion 

 of species belonging to the " Atlantic Type " of Watson, and the com- 

 paratively small number of " Germanic" plants, which distinguish the 

 botany of the Isle of Wight from that of the county; and it will be 

 remembered that the "Atlantic," or west-country Flora, is of a decidedly 

 more maritime character than the " Germanic " (or that of the east side 

 and south-east corner of England). 



Those who have rambled upon the chalk hills of the mainland will 

 miss, not only the familiar groves of beech, with the two lovely white 

 Helleborines,f and the Monotropa, their sure attendants (here among 

 the rarest of plants), but strange to say, Paris quadrifolia, Phyteuma 

 orbiculare, Daphne Mezereon, the Convallariae, Hordeum sylvaticum, 



* Germanic and Atlantic Types of Watson. 



t Cephalanthera ensifolia cannot with certainty be included in the Island 

 Flora. 



