XX 



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is hardly possible to imagine a more gro- 

 tesque aspect. Here are seen pieces of 

 peat still covered with lichens, mosses, 

 and saxifrages ; there a shoal of earth with 

 bushes of willow ; at one place a lump of 

 clay with Senecios and Polygonums ; at an- 

 other the remnants of the mammoth, tufts 

 of its hair, and some brown dust which 

 emits the smell peculiar to burial-places, 

 and is evidently decomposed animal mat- 

 ter. The foot frequently stumbles over 

 enormous osteological remains— some ele- 

 phant's tusks measuring as much as 12 

 feet in length, and weighing more than 

 240 pounds. Nor is this formation confined 

 to Eschscholtz Bay. It is observed in vari- 

 ous parts of Kotzebue Sound, on the river 

 Buck land, and in other localities, making 

 it probable that a great portion of extreme 

 North-Western America is, underneath, a 

 solid mass of ice. With such facts before 

 us, we must acknowledge that terrestrial 

 heat exercises but a limited and indirect 

 influence upon vegetable life, and that to 

 the solar rays we are mainly indebted for 

 the existence of those forms which clothe 

 with verdure and gay flowers the surface 

 of our planet. [B. S.] 



HOLY CROSS ABBEY, COVERED WITH 

 IVY. 



(Plate XX.) 



It is now, thanks to the indefatigable 

 labours of Mr. H. C. Watson, an easy task 

 to give a scientific man a clear idea of the 

 nature and extent of the flora of our 

 British Islands, by explaining to him that 

 the whole territory is divisible into six 

 zones of altitude, the super-arctic, the 

 mid-arctic, the infer-arctic, the super-agra- 

 rian, the mid-agrarian, and the infer-agra- 

 rian, and into botanical provinces, the 

 boundaries of which are founded upon 

 physical and not upon political differences ; 

 and that the vegetation comprised in 

 these divisions is composed of so-called 

 Germanic, Scandinavian, Iberian, Boreal, 

 and North-American types. This explana- 



tion, however, would convey but a vague 

 notion of what the vegetation of the Bri- 

 tish Islands really looked like to one who 

 had nothad an opportunity of familiarising 

 himself with the nature of the different 

 zones, or the character of the types. To 

 conjure up any idea of what the British 

 flora really appears like, we should have to 

 speak of waving corn fields, smiling mea- 

 dows, shady lanes, mossy tombstones, yew- 

 girt churches, gloomy pine woods, purple 

 heather, and golden furze— objects which 

 at once recall scenes and aspects of nature 

 familiarised by the pen of the poet and 

 the brush of the painter. For that reason 

 we have chosen as one of the most charac- 

 teristic features of the vegetation of the 

 British Islands, Holy Cross Abbey covered 

 with Ivy. This ivy, it is true, is not pecu- 

 liarly British, butdiffused over the whole 

 of Europe in several distinct varieties, 

 some of which have white, some yellow, 

 and some black berries. The yellow-berried 

 Ivy is confined to the south of Europe, 

 and is the plant with which in times gone 

 by poets were crowned, and which played 

 so prominent a part in the festivals held in 

 honour of Bacchus. The black-fruited va- 

 riety is much more common, and the one 

 indigenous to our islands. Though it can- 

 not claim the distinction of having en- 

 circled the heads of poets, it has furnished 

 the theme of many a poet's song, and in 

 no part of Europe does it thrive with such 

 luxuriance as in the British Islands, espe- 

 cially in Ireland, where, favoured by a hu- 

 mid and mild climate, it ascends the tops 

 of the highest trees, covers with its thick 

 evergreen foliage rocks and walls, and 

 gives a picturesqueness to many an old 

 ruined castle or Gothic abbey. It has been 

 mentioned that in remote times our Euro- 

 pean Ivy, Hedera Helix— sX least th e yellow- 

 berried variety— was brought from the 

 highlands of Asia; -but the Ivy which flou- 

 rishes in Nepal and throughout the Hima- 

 layas with such luxuriance is a species 

 quite distinct, being covered with minute 

 yellow bcales instead of white stellate 

 hairs, as our Ivy is. Our Hedera Helix is 

 a strictly European plant, which may be 

 said to attain in Britain its highest de- 

 velopment, imparting to some of its land- 

 scapes a striking and characteristic pecu- 

 liarity. [B. S.] 



