16 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



beautiful white scented heather which every visitor to 

 the Pyrenees has gathered in spring among the pine- 

 woods of Pau and Arcachon turns up once more a 

 thousand miles off in Connemara. Altogether, no fewer 

 than twelve Spanish species are found in south-western 

 Ireland, and in no other part of Britain ; while similar 

 species extend to Pembrokeshire, or are peculiar to the 

 south-western peninsula of England and the Mediter- 

 ranean or Spain and Portugal. A special Portuguese 

 slug and a few other southern animals are also found 

 under the same conditions. 



Clearly it would be absurd to set down so many 

 coincidences between these warm western regions of 

 Britain and the Continent to the chapter of accidents 

 alone. Our south-western flora is undoubtedly on the 

 whole a Spanish and Pyrenean flora in its general 

 aspect, with a large intermixture of northern forms. 

 Sometimes the south European species linger on only in 

 a single spot, like the hairy spurge at Claverton Down 

 and the purple lobelia at Axminster ; sometimes they 

 spread over wide areas, and hold their own manfully 

 against the intrusive Scandinavian types. Of these 

 curious phenomena the probable explanation is sug- 

 gested in a passing hint by Mr. Wallace. 



The southern plants are probably relics of the flora 

 which lived in Britain before the glacial epoch. At that 

 time, as our geologists are agreed in believing, Great 

 Britain and Ireland formed part of the continent of 

 Europe, to which they were united by a broad belt of 

 land, extending over the present bed of the English 

 Channel and the Bay of Biscay. As the ice pushed its 

 way southward, the northern plants migrated before it 



