Xn. TYPES OF DISTRIBUTION. 515 ' 



that is, it is not reckoned in the figures for more than 

 one of the columns. In the three ordinal summaries 

 before printed, the same species become repeatedly 

 reckoned. Festuca ovina was counted in each of the six 

 zones ; Calluna vulgaris in five of them ; Myosotis repens 

 in four of them ; &c. &c. In the one case, the special 

 characteristics of any part of Britain are mingled with 

 the less special ; — in the other case, they are eliminated 

 from the companionship of the less special. In the one 

 case, the influence of climate and other local conditions 

 is made less prominent ; — in the other case it is rendered 

 more prominent. An ordinal arrangement of all the 

 species found in England would doubtless give less 

 austral proportions, than would a like arrangement of 

 the species peculiar to England, apart from those which 

 extend also into Scotland. The former would be a 

 collective arrangement ; and the latter would be an 

 eclectic one, — in so far similar to that of types. 



Before concluding the subject, it may not be amiss to 

 remind botanists, that the grounds for such an eclectic 

 division of a flora are not at all peculiar to the flora of 

 Britain. Other countries admit of the same divisions of 

 their total floras into general and partial types of distri- 

 bution. It would be easy to make somewhat similar — 

 not strictly identical — arrangements for the floras of 

 other countries. Insular or sub-insular countries of con- 

 siderable extent may perhaps offer more obvious facili- 

 ties ; but these are to be found in all countries. 



In the peninsulas of Spain or Scandinavia, for example, 

 tJie alpine, boreal, austral, occidental, and oriental types 

 may be traced in connexion with varieties of climate ; — 

 not as really distinct floras, any more than in Britain, 

 but as groups separable from each other, and from the 



