159 



&c. 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 Silene mari- 

 tima, Oenanthe Lachenalii, Calystegia Soldanella. 



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, Thalictrum alpinum, Alchemilla 

 alpina, Cryptogramma crispa, and others ; several also occurring in 

 elevated situations in various parts of the island as Rhodiola rosea, 

 Oxyria reniformis, Hymenophyllum Wilsoni; besides a few found in 

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

 dalis claviculata and Polypodium Dryopteris. 



Thirdly, We have 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 Monensis, Sedum anglicum, Rapha- 

 nus maritimus, as well as Pinguicula lusitanica, Gymnadenia conop- 

 sea, Drosera anglica, and Listera cordata plants found in various 

 localities through the interior. This class includes many of the most 

 interesting 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 the 

 Lathyrus sylvestris, Verbascum thapsus, Inula helenium, Althaea 

 officinalis, Carlina vulgaris. They all occur within the circuit 

 of a mile, on the warm southern face of the cliffs and steep allu- 

 vial banks that front the sea at the extreme south of the 

 island, near Benan-head. No one who examines the locality can 

 think it possible 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 Car- 

 lina are still abundant ; the Inula, however, seems to have been extir- 

 pated, if indeed the report of its existence was correct. It is cer- 

 tainly 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. The Althaea has been found 

 within the last few years, but is now either extinct or very scarce. 

 It is to be hoped that botanical collectors who may visit the spot 



