418 Relations between Geological Strata and 
united with the superstratum of mountain lime. It has been 
stated in the Philosophical and Literary Society of Manches- 
ter, by one of its most distinguished members (Mr. Moore), 
that wherever the brushwood of the lime district in Derby- 
shire is burnt down, the common Trifolium praténse (Dutch 
clover) springs up; and on the pastures round Stonehouse, 
at Plymouth, I was informed by Lord Mount-Edgecumbe’s 
steward, a similar species is produced by throwing over the 
land the crumbled soil of the harbour rock, which is com- 
monly called Devonshire marble, a species of mountain or 
primitive lime. 
Foxglove is common every where but on chalk; and, how- 
ever usual the occurrence of this beautiful but noxious flower 
is throughout England, the Isle of Wight scarcely boasts a 
single specimen. 
The chalk districts afford the most striking illustrations. 
Wherever you come to chalk, even at a depth below the soll, 
there you find in abundance saintdpin’ conglomerate bellflower, 
nodding thistle, mountain galium, and *dropwort meadow- 
sweet, with a scarcity, almost a want, of the grasses, except 
those allied to the agrostis or bent, a dry, hard, and slender 
herbage. Here, too, the spider, bee, “and fly orchises are 
quite common. 
In the Isle of Wight, on the high downs near an open sea, 
or on the level inland plains of Wiltshire, or on the slopes of 
Brighton, Bognor, or Kent, in every variety of position and 
climate, the same plants maintain their position on chalk, and 
scarcely ever occur elsewhere. 
Objections to this theory must be numerous. For the sake 
of brevity, let me simply state the most cogent, and attempt 
an answer, on the principles here laid down, 
1. The number and variety of rocks are not in proportion to 
the number and variety of vegetables. 
This incongruity may arise from the great fertility of plants. 
Thistles, for example, may produce a hundred thousand 
seeds, and the ferns many hundreds of thousands. Nature, 
by this overproduction, may have provided for the waste oc- 
casioned by loss of appropriate situation ; and experience in- 
forms us, that millions of seeds do thus perish, or are laid in 
a dormant state among strata of sand, clay, or loam, whence 
they can derive no support: while simple induction would 
convince us that, of the many millions of seeds which never 
vegetate, not one half can be lost from any other cause, 
as “weather, imperfect structure, or want of room to grow. 
They are possessed of means and powers to transport them- 
