186 WILD FLOWERS. 



to be confined to the serpentine formation ; but Miss 

 Warren communicated to Sir W. J. Hooker its oc- 

 currence in the parish of Mylor, " far from any ser- 

 pentine;" a circumstance which, as she remarks, 

 gives to that parish the distinguishing feature of 

 being the only one amongst the eleven thousand 

 seven hundred parishes of England that produces 

 all our known species and varieties of heath. 



The occurrence in our islands of these two heaths 

 has been accounted for by the supposition that the 

 first, which is so abundant in Southern Spain, 

 was introduced by the Spanish colonists ; while 

 the last is believed, in like manner, to have been 

 brought from Spain and Portugal by some early 

 settlers, or traders in tin ; but however plausible 

 these speculations may, at first sight, appear, they 

 are rendered as unnecessary, as they are improbable, 

 by a consideration of the broader principles govern- 

 ing the distribution of plants.* As well might we 

 argue a former occupation of the Hebrides, or the 

 broken shores of Connemara, by some early North 

 America Indian tribe, because those places, respec- 

 tively, possess specimens of the jointed pipe- wort 

 (Eriocaulon septangular e), a New World plant, 

 which has reached us through Iceland, and the 

 Faroe and Shetland Isles. The heaths in question 

 are, in fact, only a portion of those plants which be- 

 long to the " Atlantic type " of Watson ; the " Lusi- 

 tanian," or " Western Pyrenean," and the " Armori- 

 can " types of Professor E. Forbes, which in con- 

 sequence of climatal and other peculiarities are 

 * Effect of ocean currents, &c. 



