III. FLORA OF BRITAIN. 401 



sucli as may warrant the elevation of Equisetum to ordinal 

 rank, notwitlistanding its paucity of species. 



The numerical value and proportions of the orders 

 represented in the British flora have heen already exhi- 

 bited under various aspects, general and partial, in tlie 

 census tables printed on pages 359 to 367. Perhaps the 

 formidable array of figures may deter some botanists 

 from an examination of those tables. It is to be observed, 

 however, that by placing the names in a columnar series, 

 according to the numerical value of the orders in our 

 island flora, the general idea is correctly expressed to the 

 eye, by the mere position of the names, if a reader should 

 not care to trouble himself at all with the figures. The 

 position of Composites and Gramina at the top of the list 

 fully expresses the fact, that the species of those two 

 orders predominate in the flora. But it would not show, 

 without the figures added in the two first columns of the 

 * collective census,' either the absolute or the compara- 

 tive amount of their predominance. Neither would it 

 show, without the figures in the two last columns of the 

 same census being looked to, that the British flora corre- 

 sponds with those of Europe and of the whole earth in 

 the numerical superiority of the Composite ; while it does 

 not correspond with them in the position of the Gramina, 

 second in the series. Leguminiferce hold the second place 

 in the floras of Europe and of the whole earth ; though 

 they yield to the Gramina in Britain. Subjoined is a 

 more simple manner of portraying the absolute and com- 

 parative numerical values of the orders in the flora of 

 this country : — 



135. Compositae. Nine and a half per ceut. 



1 12. Gramina. Nearly eight per cent, of the whole. 



93. Cyperoides. Six and a half per cent. 



82, RosacciB. Five and three-quarters per cent. , 



VOL. IV. ■ 3 F 



