ATLANTIC FRINGE 297 



enormous cultivation of bulbs in this country, the bulb 

 and tuber are not characteristic features of the vege- 

 tation of mild oceanic climates. Such forms, so ob- 

 viously adjusted in respect of their stores of reserve 

 materials in bulbs, tubers, or strong rootstocks, to long 

 periods of rest through drought or cold and to a short 

 period of aerial growth, are rather test plants of arid, 

 semi-arid, steppe or mediterranean climates. They are 

 particularly well developed in, and quite characteristic 

 of, regions like the South African Karroos, the Peruvian 

 semi-deserts, the Asiatic and Russian steppes, and the 

 Mediterranean. They decrease alike in number, variety, 

 and size, from the south-east to the north-west of 

 Europe. On oceanic and sub-oceanic margins they con- 

 fine themselves, or are possibly confined by competition 

 of other plant forms in the wild state, to very special 

 environments such as rich pastures, meadows and 

 marshes, certain kinds of forest moulds, rocks, &c., 

 where but a short growth period is available. The fact 

 of their extensive cultivation illustrates their great 

 adaptability and the early reawakening of nature on 

 the oceanic fringe. 



Britain. Several aspects of the vegetation of Britain 

 have already been mentioned : the Scottish and English 

 highlands were associated with the Scandinavian Alps 

 as part of the North European region of conifers and 

 birches, and the south-western or Atlantic fringe was 

 connected with the broken fragments of a similar belt 

 in France and Spain. The bulk of the country belongs 

 undoubtedly to the western region of the cool-temperate 

 deciduous belt, from which it differs in no essential 

 respect. The landscape is typically that of western 

 Europe, viz. an undulating park, where pastures and 

 meadows predominate over the cultivated area, dotted 



