FLORA OF ARRAX. 231 



vegetation we may regard it under two aspects, as illustrating 

 the peculiar featui'es of the tract itself, or as indicating the 

 relations of that tract to the surrounding regions what may 

 be called its general botanico-geographical position. Glancing 

 at the flora of Arran from this latter point of view, we shall 

 observe some interesting facts. Writers on the botanical 

 geography of Britain class the plants of our country according 

 to several " types of distribution," to denote their geographi- 

 cal range and affinities. Thus many species, occurring chiefly 

 in the east and south of England, are assigned to the Germanic 

 type; others, most of them denizens of the Scottish High- 

 lands, are referred to the Scandinavian; while others again, 

 characterizing Ireland and the westerly coasts of Britain, are 

 grouped under the Atlantic type. Some few there are, found 

 only in Cornwall and the west of Ireland, whose affinities 

 are with the Spanish Peninsula, and especially with the 

 mountains of the Asturias ; and for these there is proposed a 

 Lusitanian type. Somewhat similar to the position of Britain, 

 if we may be allowed to compare great things with small, is 

 the position of Arran. Most of its common species the 

 plants of the field, the road-side, the marsh it has in com- 

 mon with the western Lowlands of Scotland, which stand to 

 it in the same relation that the continent does to England. 

 These Lowland plants form the bulk of its flora. They 

 include almost all those of common occurrence, as well as 

 several of the rai-er sort such as Ranunculus Lingua, Helian- 

 themum vulgare, Epipactis ensifolia, Samolus Valerandi, the 

 Botrychium and Ophioglossum, Asplenium ruta-muraria, etc. 

 Under this class are embraced nearly all the species that 

 frequent the cultivated land, the marshes and streams, the 

 woods and pastures ; together with several maritime ones 

 as SUene maritima, OenantJie Lachenalii, Calystegia Sold- 

 anella. 



A second "type" discernible in Arran is that which we 

 might call the Highland. To this group belong the alpine 

 plants of the highest granite mountains Salix herbacea, 



