IX ENGLISH AND AMERICAN FLOWERS 203 



indigenous and not introduced by man ; yet the differences 

 between the European and Australian floras are very 

 great, and are hardly surpassed by those of any two 

 regions on the globe. It is evident, therefore, that we 

 must expect to find a considerable number of English 

 species in North America, and a still larger number of 

 English genera, because this is a feature which occurs in 

 all temperate regions, and cannot be held to prove any 

 special relationship between these two countries. Among 

 these familiar English flowers we find a tolerable number 

 of violets, anemones, St. John's worts, vetches, potentillas, 

 willow-herbs, gentians, and some others ; while wild 

 geraniums, saxifrages, stonecrops, campanulas, forget-me- 

 nots, and true orchises are far less frequently met with 

 than with us. 



But what most strikes the English botanist (next to 

 the altogether unfamiliar types that everywhere abound) 

 is the total absence or extreme rarity of many plants 

 and groups of plants which are the most abundant and 

 familiar of our native fiowers, and which are almost 

 equally common throughout Europe, and often throughout 

 northern Asia. There are, for instance, no true poppies 

 like those so abundant in our corn-fields ; no common or 

 musk-mallows of the genus Malva, or gorse or broom or 

 rest-harrow ; no teasel or scabious ; no true heaths ; no 

 bugloss or comfrey ; no ivy to adorn the old trees and 

 walls with its glossy foliage ; no mullein, toad-flax,^ snap- 

 dragon, or fox-glove ; no scented thyme, basil or marjoram ; 

 no bright blue ground-ivy or bugle ; no white or yellow 

 or purple dead-nettles ; no scarlet pimpernel ; not even a 

 primrose or a cowslip in all the land. There are, it is 

 true, two species of Primula in the North-Eastern States, 

 one the bird's-eye primrose of our northern counties, and 

 another still smaller peculiar species, but both are confined 

 to limited districts near the great lakes, and are not to be 

 found unless specially searched for ; and no other prim- 

 roses are to be met with till we reach the Rocky Mountains, 

 where there are two or three high alpine species. 



" ^ Toad-flax {Lenaria mdgaris) is coniinon in some parts of New 

 England, but it is an introduced species run wild. 



