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DISTRIBUTION OF THE BEITISH FERNS, &c. 



The limits of this volume neither allow of a very 

 complete nor very detailed record of the situations in which 

 the plants we have been describing have been found ; nor 

 is it necessary that their habitats should be fully and 

 minutely stated. The facts selected for record will, how- 

 ever, be so arranged as to afford some insight into the 

 geographical range of the species in the British Isles. 



Mr. Watson, who is our best authority on the question 

 of the distribution of plants in the United Kingdom, has 

 well remarked that the county divisions are too numerous, 

 and the ancient political divisions too few, to express, with 

 both completeness and precision, the actual distribution of 

 species — the first, because our information is imperfect, the 

 second, because the areas arc too extensive. He has, 

 therefore, proposed another set of divisions, which he calls 

 provinces. These provinces are thus formed. From the south 

 coast of England to the Highlands of Scotland, a medial line 



