INTRODUCTION. 



Strawberry-tree {Arhutus Unedo, L.) is equally common and 

 hardy with the two last, fruits pretty freely, and grows to a tree 

 of respectable size, though inferior to the timber-like dimensions 

 it acquires on its native rocks in the South-west of Ireland, or 

 even in the South-western counties of England, where the 

 greater moisture of the atmosphere eminently favours the de- 

 velopment of this, as of most other evergreens. But if the 

 greater cold of our climate in winter and its greater dryness at 

 all seasons tend to check the luxuriant growth of these and 

 other sempervirent plants, the comparative absence of humi- 

 dity and a less clouded sky enables the increased heat of sum- 

 mer to ripen the wood, and so fit it to endure a degree of frost 

 it would else be unable to withstand. So happily balanced, in 

 the climate of the Isle of Wight, are the vicissitudes of heat 

 and cold to which it is occasionally subject, from its proximity 

 to the mainland and to the Continent of Europe in a degree 

 unusual to insular situations, that the former repairs, or rather 

 counteracts, the destructive agency of tbe latter on vegetation. 



If we turn from the aspect of the exotic to that of the indi- 

 genous vegetation of the island, we recognize the abundant pre- 

 dominance of those trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants which 

 Mr. Watson considers as eminently chai'acterizing the climate 

 of the inferior belt of the lower Agricultural Zone, together 

 with many other species scarcely less indicative of the finest 

 wheat region. We here find Acer campestre, Cornus sanguinea, 

 Viburnum Lantana, Ligustrum vulgare, Samhucus nigra, Euo- 

 nymus europceus, Uhnus suherosa, amongst the commonest pro- 

 ductions of our woods, thickets, and the luxuriant hedgerows 

 that bound our fields, and over which Tamus communis, Clema- 

 tis Vitalba, Humulus Lupulus, Rubia peregrina, Bryonia dioica, 

 Lonicera Perichjmemmi, Solanum Dulcamara and Convolvulus 

 sejyium ramble in rich and often oppressive profusion. 



From its close proximity to the mainland of England, the 

 Isle of Wight exhibits less insularity of character in its Flora 

 than any of the other islands forming part of the British group, 

 scarcely differing, except in the absence of some few genera and 

 species and the greater prevalence of certain others, from the 

 Botany of the opposite part of Hampshire. If we compare the 

 Flora of the Isle of Man, and even of Anglesey, still more that 

 of the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands, with those of 



