1 10 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



ing remarks on the British fauna for this reason lose 

 much of the value which they might otherwise 

 possess. 



In his remarkable essay the late Edward Forbes 

 affirms that the flora peculiar to the west of 

 Ireland, of which the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) 

 is the most striking example, and which exhibits such 

 strong southern affinities, is not only much the most 

 ancient of our island floras, but that it is actually of 

 miocene age. It migrated to Ireland from Spain at 

 a very remote period, during which he supposed that 

 a direct land-connection existed between the two 

 countries. The destruction of this old land-bridge, 

 he thinks, must have taken place before the com- 

 mencement of the Glacial period. Climatal changes 

 during that time destroyed the mass of the southern 

 flora which had thus reached Ireland, the survivors 

 being species such as were most hardy (saxifrages, 

 heaths, etc.), which he considers to be the only relics 

 of this most ancient portion of our flora. 



The northern or Arctic fauna and flora, according 

 to the same author, established themselves in the 

 British Isles during the Glacial period at a time 

 when these were groups of islands in the midst of 

 an ice-bound sea. Finally, the great mass of our 

 animals and plants migrated from the Continent to 

 England after the Glacial period. " The migration of 

 the species," he says, " less speedy of diffusion, which 

 are now peculiar to England was arrested by the 

 breaking up of the land-connection between England 



