232 FLORA OF ARRAN. 



Thalictrum aJpinum, A IcJiemilla alpina, Cryptogramma crispa, 

 and others; several also occurring in elevated situations in 

 various parts of the island as Rhodiola rosea, Oxyria renifor- 

 mis, Hynienophyllum Wilsoni; besides a few found in moun- 

 tainous regions, though at no great altitude such as Cory- 

 dalis daviculata and Polypodium Dryopteris. 



We have, thirdly, a considerable class occupying, as it were, 

 in Arran, the place which the Atlantic type holds in Britain, 

 including the plants peculiar to the west coast, and especially 

 frequent in the Hebridean chain of islands. Such are many 

 of the maritime species Mertensia maritima, Brassica Mon- 

 ensis, Sedum anglicum, Raphanus maritimus, as well as Pin- 

 guicula lusitanica, Gymnadenia conopsea, Drosera anglica, 

 and Listera cordata plants found in various localities through 

 the interior. This class includes many of the most interest- 

 ing and characteristic plants of the island not a few of 

 them such as will be entirely new to the English botanist. 



But the most curious feature in the botanical geography of 

 Arran is the occurrence in its southern extremity of several 

 species scarcely elsewhere to be found in Scotland ; belonging, 

 in fact, to the flora of central England, and here apparently 

 quite projected, so to speak, from their ordinary range. Of 

 these the most remarkable are Lathyrus sylvestris, Verbascum 

 thapsus, Imda Helenium, Althcea ojficinalis, and Carlina vu2- 

 garis. They all occur within the circuit of a mile, on the 

 warm southern face of the cliffs and steep alluvial banks that 

 front the sea at the extreme south of the island, near Benan- 

 head. No one who examines the locality can think it pos- 

 sible that they should have escaped from cultivation; and it 

 is scarcely less improbable that they should have been planted 

 there by the hand of man. The Lathyrus, Verbascum, and 

 Carlina are still abundant; the Intda, however, seems to 

 have been extirpated, if indeed the report of its existence was 

 correct It is certainly not to be found now, yet it is difficult 

 to see how the mistake could have arisen, as there is no plant 

 in the neighbourhood which would be readily mistaken for it. 



