56 Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



pcan plants, which seem as if they had come in from 

 the east : and of these a few get no farther than the 

 eastern counties ; a great many spread over the whole 

 country ; and the remainder have reached to the west 

 and to Ireland. The second division is that of the 

 Scandinavian plants, which seem as if they had come 

 in from the north ; and of these a few stop short 

 in Shetland, Orkney, or the Highlands ; others get 

 as far as the midland counties ; and a good many 

 straggle on into Kent or Cornwall. The third division 

 comprises the mountain plants, which have come in 

 from various quarters, and which grow wherever the 

 elevation and the mountain air suit their constitutions. 

 But my wood-spurge agrees with none of these, and 

 it clearly belongs to another southern class, which 

 cannot have entered Britain by any of the customary 

 routes via Dover, Harwich, or Southampton. It 

 seems to have taken a route of its own, and to have 

 attacked England by way of Bristol and Bordeaux. 

 Otherwise, we should find it and the other peculiar 

 west-country species in the warmer parts of Kent, 

 Surrey, and the Isle of Wight, which, as a matter of 

 fact, we never do. If climate were the only agent at 

 work, Ventnor certainly has as good claims as any 

 place in England. 



Perhaps it seems a useless question to inquire how 



