XXXll INTEODUCTION. 



boundary mark of the two hundreds of East and West Medene 

 or Medina, — a division both politically and botanically conve- 

 nient, from the nearly exact equality of these districts in point 

 of size.* Four other streamlets of less note intersect the 

 country, two in each hundred, besides several other still 

 smaller rills. Of the former, there is, in East Medina, first, 

 the Wootton River, betwixt Eyde and Cowes, navigable as 

 high as Wootton Bridge, and winding its way between woods 

 from its source to the sea ; secondly, the Main Eiver or Yar, f 

 as long as or longer than the Medina itself, which, rising from 

 near the southernmost point of the island, flows, in a North- 

 easterly direction, through an extensive tract of boggy meadows 

 by Newchurch, and, gradually expanding into the broad delta of 

 Sandown Level, empties itself into Brading Hai'bour. In West 

 Medina, the Yar (properly so called) and Newtown Rivers are 

 rather estuaries of the sea, with salt-marshes along their banks, 

 partially overflowed at high water. On the latter arm of the 

 Solent are several salterns, where salt of excellent quality for 

 curing bacon is manufactured, by the evaporation of sea-water, 

 partly by the heat of the sun and partly by boiling. The edges 

 of the " pans " or shallow evaporating basins of these saltworks 

 are thickly fringed with various maritime plants, some of them 

 rare, and flourishing in contact with brine of a high degree of 

 concentration. Amongst these are Inula crithmoides, Bupleu- 

 mm tenuissimum, Frankenia Imvis, Salicornia radicans, &c. 



Besides the five principal streams we have mentioned, and 

 the many still smaller brooks and rivulets, are innumerable 

 drains and ditches in the marshy valleys of the interior ; yet, 

 from causes which will be adverted to hereafter, our Flora ex- 

 hibits a remarkable deficiency of genuine aquatic plants, most of 

 those which are common in other parts of the kingdom being 

 with us wholly wanting or very rarely met with. 



The Isle of Wight is situated nearly midway betwixt the ex- 

 treme points of the southern coast of England, or a little to the 

 eastward of its central meridian, lying between 50° 34' and 



* From this central course the Medina derives its name. 

 t This must be carefully distinguished from the other river so called, in 

 West Medina, at the mouth of which stands the town of Yarmouth. 



