XXIV INTRODUCTION. 



England, and which are extremely rare and local, if really indige- 

 nous to Scotland and Ireland, show a marked tendency to avoid 

 the coast line of the Isle of Wight in every part of its peri- 

 phery, and to retreat towards the central, and as it were more 

 continental, portion of it. All three are plants eminently 

 attached to calcareous soils,* and, though that condition for 

 their maintenance is afforded them by the extension of the 

 chalk and hmestone to several points along the shore, in vain 

 should we look for a specimen of any one of them betwixt the 

 Foreland and the Needles, or from thence along the North side 

 of the island to the mouth of the Medina, within a distance, in 

 most cases, of several miles from the sea-beach. It is true 

 that on the mainland the Bryony at least grows in many places 

 near the sea-beach, but the indefinite extent of country at the 

 back gives such shore stations a comparatively continental 

 character. 



The following species evince, in the Isle of "Wight, a power 

 of occupancy not very greatly superior to that shown by the 

 plants just named, but which are as certainly indigenous as any 

 others of greater frequency and abundance : — 



Habenaria viridis Cladiura Mariscus 



Ophrys aranifera Thalictrum flavum 



Butomus urabellatus Asparagus officinalis 



Whilst we may cite, as holding a very insignificant amount of 

 space in our island Flora, Botrychium Lunaria, Lastrea 

 Oreopteris, Asplenium marinum, Spircea Filipendula, Orobanche 

 cwndea, Listera Nidus-avis, Vaccinium Oxycoccos, Dianthus 

 Armeria and D. proUfer, all equally indigenous with those 

 before enumerated, though concentrated in small quantity on 

 solitary points as it were of the country, or scattered individu- 

 ally over it at few and distant intervals. 



The absence of a very large, and indeed the greater, propor- 

 tion of the genuine aquatic plants of Britain is a peculiarity in 

 the Isle-of- Wight Flora, the cause of which is manifestly the 



* The Bryony is found on the green sand in several places S. and S.E. of 

 Newport, as at Sandway, Pagham, Perreton and Bedway, as well as on the 

 chalk, to which the two remaining species in question are confined. 



