Outlines of the Botany of the Isle of Wight. 521 



Niton is above all well situated for a foray into the sand country behind 

 the Downs ; a day's ramble down the course of the stream as far as 

 Godshill, Bleak Down, and Rookley will well repay the botanical 

 tourist, and there is a coach passing through Godshill which will either 

 enable him to proceed to Cowes or return to Niton. 



To sum up in a few words the Botanical characteristics of the Isle 

 of Wight Flora, it may suffice to state that the whole number of 

 flowering plants amounts to near 800 : of these about 80 are maritime 

 species ; about 70 are weeds of cultivated land ; 30 or 40 others are 

 liable to more or less suspicion as to whether they are aboriginal or not. 

 And to avail ourselves of Mr. H. C. Watson's labours, so as to compare 

 with Great Britain the respective proportions of his different groups, or 

 " Types," the Isle of Wight has, roughly, three out of four of the uni- 

 versally distributed British plants ; two out of three of the species which 

 prevail in the south of Great Britain ; one out of three of the south- 

 western species ; one out of four of the south-eastern. Or, to express 

 their characters in order of the value, the island is distinguished, ist, 

 for the preponderance of southern ; 2ndly, of maritime ; 3rdly, of uni- 

 versal or common plants ; 4thly, come the south-western ; 5thly, the 

 south-eastern ; and lastly, the boreal or northern element is barely 

 discernible in the presence of Vicia sylvatica, Sagina subulata, and 

 Vaccinium Oxycoccos. 



Eight plants of the south-western distribution, i.e. belonging to the 

 "Atlantic Type," find their eastern limit in the Isle of Wight, viz. : 



Erodium maritimum. 

 Orobanche Hederae. 

 Pinguicula lusitanica. 

 Coronopus didyma. 



Briza minor. 

 Agrostis setacea. 

 Euphorbia Portlandica. 

 Euphorbia Peplis (extinct) ; 



and these are species which will probably most interest the metropolitan 

 botanist. Similarly, there are ten belonging to Watson's " Germanic" 

 (south-eastern) "Type," which do not reach to the westward of the 

 island : these are, 



Chenopodium glaucum. 

 Ophrys aranifera. 

 Poa bulbosa. 

 Frankenia laevis. 

 Carex Bonninghausiana. 



Sclerochloa Borreri. 

 Melampyrum arvense. 

 Melilotus arvensis. 

 Setaria viridis. 

 Dianthus prolifer (extinct). 



The three last being restricted to cultivated land, there may be some 

 question as to their nativity, and the Melilotus especially maybe reason- 

 ably expected to range further to the west than is at present known. In 

 the Isle of Wight it so often appears among recently sown clover, that 

 it is probably nothing more than an imported stranger. The same 

 may be said of Poterium muricatum ; neither of these plants have so 

 firm a hold of the ground as Veronica Buxbaumii, an acknowledged 

 interloper. 



