444 APPENDIX G. 



extend to the northern part of the Spanish Peninsula, although 

 some of them are altogether wanting in the Floras of Spain and 

 Portugal. 



A simple inspection of our list suffices to show that it dis- 

 closes no trace of affinity between the Great Atlas Flora and 

 that of the Canary Islands, or, to use a term of wider geogra- 

 phical import, that of Macaronesia. The few species belonging 

 exclusively to the latter region and to Marocco are nearly all 

 confined to the coast region.' Almost all the species common 

 to the Atlas and to Macaronesia are widely spread Medi- 

 terranean plants that ascend from the low country into the 

 valleys. The solitary mountain plant belonging to this category 

 is Arabis alhida, the soiithern form of A. alpina, common in 

 the East, and in the Apennines of Central and Southern Italy, 

 but which, strange to say, has not been found in Spain. In 

 Teneriife, as in the Atlas, it ascends to about the level of 2,700 

 metres above the sea. The only fact suggesting a remote 

 affinity between the Great Atlas and Macaronesian Floras is 

 the presence in the former of a species of Monanthea, a generic 

 group hitherto found only in the Canary and Cape de Verde 

 Islands. But the absence of any closer connection clearly 

 shows that the separation between the Macaronesian group and 

 the main land of Africa must date from a period, even 

 geologically speaking, remote. 



When we come to sum up the results of the foregoing dis- 

 cussion, bearing always in mind the fact that we possess a mere 

 fragment of the Flora of the Great Atlas, and that future 

 exploration may largely modify our conclusions, we find as its 

 most striking characteristic the presence of a large proportion 

 of plants of Central and Northern Europe, along with a con- 

 siderable number of peculiar species not hitherto known else- 

 where ; and we observe that these two constituents, which 



' The only possible exception to this statement among the plants 

 enumerated in our list is that entered as Asparagus sooparius, Lowe (?) 

 From the differences between the foliage a^d that of other known 

 species it was at first entered as a new species peculiar to the Atlas. 

 Subsequent comparison with a Madeira specimen from the late Mr. 

 Lowe suggested their possible identity. Should this be hereafter 

 verified, the number of endemic species in the tables given above must 

 be reduced from 75 to 74. 



