DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



The flowering plants which now grow wild in the various parts 

 of Great Britain are more than 1400 in number. Some of 

 them are of extremely rare occurrence, being found only in one 

 single spot, and that often in some distant nook, far from 

 human habitation ; others are more or less common in parti- 

 cular counties only, while the rest are to be found distributed 

 far and wide, over hill and dale, hedge-row, and river-side. 

 These last are plants which no ordinary circumstances can 

 eradicate; but those of more local habitation are liable to ex- 

 tinction from the progress of man's labors, the extension of 

 cities, the forming of roads, and the cutting down of woods. 

 Even within memory many species have been lost ; while, on 

 the other hand, several have escaped from time to time from 

 gardens, and thus have become settlers in the fields. The 

 Crocus, the Snowdrop, the Narcissus, and the Lily of the 

 Valley, all reckoned now as natives, were no doubt originally 

 introduced ; the garden has in return adopted several from the 

 hedges. The Hawthorn, the Honeysuckle, the Clematis, the 

 Sweetbriar, the Violet, and numerous other favorites, not only 

 blossom free in many a rural district, but are seen in juxta- 

 position with the most favored flowers of foreign climes. 



Our native plants, too, are varied in character and appearance 

 more than those belonging to almost any other country. 

 The bleak and lofty mountains of the North, the warm chalky 

 and sandy fields of the South, the rocky cliffs of the West, the 

 fenny lands of the East, and the wooded heights, rich valleys, 

 and luxuriant meadows of the Midland Counties, have each a 

 herbage of its own, as different in character from the rest as 

 the variations of soil, climate, and cultivation, which the face 

 of the country itself presents. 



If we were to consider the number of species which grow in. 

 particular districts, it would be found that, as we proceed 

 southwards, so a greater number exists; thus, in the North of 

 Scotland, they are very limited around Edinburgh and on 

 the banks of the Clyde and Tweed species are more numerous. 

 In the Midland Counties of England still more so, while for 

 thirty miles around London, and onwards towards the Southern 



