54 Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



at Torquay, and in Jersey and Guernsey. In almost 

 all, if not in all, these cases the plant is a southern one, 

 which extends usually from the Caspian to Spain, is 

 perhaps found as far north as the Gironde or even 

 the Loire, and then disappears again till it turns up 

 suddenly in some exceptionally sheltered nook of 

 Devon, Cornwall, or South Wales. This is a pheno- 

 menon which cannot surely be due to chance alone. 

 Indeed, I might greatly increase the list, but I refrain 

 only because I am afraid of being wearisome. 



When we turn to the similarly placed south- 

 western corner of Ireland, the peculiarities we meet 

 are even more remarkable. I shall never forget my 

 surprise when once, after my first visit to Nice and 

 Mentone, I began describing the beautiful Provencal 

 flowers to an Irish botanist, and was quietly an- 

 swered, * Ah, yes ; we have them all at Killarney.' 

 But it is really true none the less. The thick-leaved 

 sedum, after skipping all England and Wales, shows 

 itself suddenly in the Cove of Cork. The pretty 

 Mediterranean heath, which every winterer at Pau 

 has gathered by handfuls on the hills about Eaux 

 Chaudes or Cauterets, jumps at a bound to the coast 

 of Kerry. The arbutus, with its clustering white 

 blossoms and beautiful red berries, is similarly found 

 in Provence and again at Glengariff. London Pride 



