882 LIMITS OF DISTRIBUTION. 



distribution are dependent at the present day on climatic conditions; the manner in 

 which the species has come to occupy that area has not been determined by the 

 existing climate, but by geological processes which have always been the cause of 

 the migrations of plants on a large scale. It also becomes a question in each 

 individual case to what extent under past and present conditions the means of 

 plant-dispersion would have free play. 



The different areas of distribution vary greatly in size. Many species are only 

 encountered on a single mountain, or in a particular valley, or on one island, as the 

 case may be. These are called endemic species. As examples of such endemic 

 species from the regions of Southern and Central Europe we may mention the 

 following: Iberis Gibraltarica (Gibraltar), JEuzoTnodendron Bv/rgoeanv/m (Central 

 Spain), Bioscorea Pyrenaica (Central and Eastern Pyrenees), Saxifraga fioridenta 

 (Liguria and Piedmont), Saponaria lutea (South-western Alps), Heracleum alpinwm 

 {the Jura), Hierdcium Grisebachii (the Oetzthal in the Central Alps of Tyrol), 

 Daphne petroea (Val Vestino), Bhizobotrya alpina (Fassa and Belluno), Oentiana 

 Frolichii (Carniola and Carinthia), Wulfenia Carinthiaca (Carinthia), Sempervivum 

 Pittonii (Serpentine mountains in Upper Styria), Schiverekia Podolica (PodoHa), 

 Viscaria nivalis (Rodna Gebirge, in Northern Transylvania), Pedicula/ris limnogena 

 (Bihar Mountains), Hepatica Transsylvanica (Southern Transylvania), Haberlea 

 Bhodopensis (Rhodope Mountains in Roumelia), Jankcea Eeldreichii (Thessalian 

 Olympus), Helichrysv/m virgineum (Mount Athos), Campanula Aizoon (Mount 

 Parnassus), Hypericum fragile (Euboea), Globularia stygia (Mount Eielmos), 

 Genista Melia (Melos), Cephalanthera cucullata (Crete), Gentaurea crassifolia 

 {Malta), Petagnia saniculifolia (Sicily), Lereschia Thomasii (Calabria), Batatas 

 sinuata (Ischia), Helichrysum frigidunm, (Mountains of Corsica). 



The species contrasting with the endemic as regards distribution, i.e. those whose 

 range extends over almost the whole of the plant-inhabited earth, are called cosmo- 

 politan. Their number is very small. 



Only in the case of endemic species occupying an extremely restricted area do 

 we sometimes find the plants evenly distributed over the whole area. They are 

 more usually scattered unequally over the district in question. The spots where 

 they grow in large numbers close together are separated by tracts where they do not 

 ^ow at all, but where other species have taken possession of the soil, and the hne 

 •of distribution then incloses separate habitats which are often at a considerable 

 -distance from each other. In such cases we speak of the area of distribution as 

 sporadic. How far this depends on properties of the soil has been explained on 

 pp. 495-500, and we need here only add that in mountainous or hilly coimtries 

 the degree and direction of the inclination of the ground may have an important 

 influence. Owing to the fact that a slope receives very different amounts of light 

 and heat according as it faces north or south, different parts of a single mountain 

 may exhibit diversities in respect of temperature and moisture as great as exist on 

 flat ground between places separated by a degree of latitude. Also the differences 

 in meteorological conditions between slopes facing east and west respectively, and 



