chap, vii.] EUROPEAN VEGETATION. 185 



Lobelia, Oxalis (Wood-sorrel), Quercus (Oak), and Taxus 

 (Yew). A few of the smaller plants (Plantago major and 

 lanceolata, Sonchus oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) are 

 identical with European species. 



The fact of a vegetation so closely allied to that of 

 Europe occurring on isolated mountain peaks, in an island 

 south of the Equator, while all the lowlands for thousands 

 of miles around are occupied by a flora of a totally 

 different character, is very extraordinary ; and has only 

 recently received an intelligible explanation. The Peak 

 of Teneriffe, which rises to a trreater height and is much 

 nearer to Europe, contains no such Alpine flora ; neither 

 do the mountains of Bourbon oncl Mauritius. The case 

 of the volcanic peaks of Java is therefore somewhat 

 exceptional, but there are several analogous, if not exactly 

 parallel cases, that will enable us better to understand 

 in what way the phenomena may possibly have been 

 brought about. The higher peaks of the Alps, and even 

 of the Pyrenees, contain a number of plants absolutely 

 identical with those of Lapland, but nowhere found in 

 the intervening plains. On the summit of the White 

 Mountains, in the United States, every plant is identical 

 with species growing in Labrador. In these cases all 

 ordinary means of transport fail. Most of the plants 

 have heavy seeds, which could not possibly be carried 

 such immense distances by the wind ; and the agency of 



