422 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If, however, we now leave Europe, and endeavour to find any British 

 plants elsewhere, we shall discover small groups appearing here and there 

 in many parts of the world. The following numbers will indicate how 

 many British plants have been hitherto found in the several localities, 

 and will also illustrate the fact that the plants of Britain, like his 

 Majesty's dominions and subjects, are world-wide in their dispersion. 

 Travelling eastwards from the Ural Mountains, Siberia contains about 

 750 British plants, and within the area included between the river Obi 

 and Bering Strait, and bounded southwards by the Arctic Circle 

 (lat. 66|°), there are 111. Kamchatka contains 140. In North-east Asia, 

 including the area from Bering Strait to South Japan, there are 325, 

 of which Japan has 156 British species. 



Next, regarding the extension of our plants eastwards along the 

 southern line of mountains, Hooker and Thomson give a list of 222 

 British plants which reach India.* These appear to have travelled east- 

 wards from Europe, finding means of transit along the Taurus, Caucasus, 

 and western hilly or mountainous regions ; and the above authors remark 

 that "the keystone to the whole system of distribution in Western 

 Asia does not rest so much upon a number of ' representative ' species as 

 upon the fact that not only are a large proportion of annual and herbaceous 

 species of each common to Western India and Europe, but of shrubs and 

 trees also. Those of North Europe inhabit the loftier levels of the 

 Himalayas, where they blend with the Siberian types." t It may be added 

 that European types disappear eastwards gradually at first, but rapidly 

 after reaching Kumaon. Few species enter Nepal, and still fewer reach 

 Sikkim. Of the plants which cross the Indian mountains and appear 

 in tropical Asia (i.e. India south of the Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains 

 of Eastern Bengal, together with the mountains of both peninsulas of 

 India, Ceylon, and Java), the number, as might be expected, is much 

 reduced, only twenty-three species being found there. 



The next distributions to be considered are along the three greatest 

 lines of extension of land into the southern hemisphere — namely, first, 

 from India, through the East India islands to Australia, Tasmania, New 

 Zealand, and the islands to the south ; secondly, from Europe, through 

 Africa and the islands near the coast to the Cape ; thirdly, from Green- 

 land and arctic America to Cape Horn ; lastly, the isolated spots in 

 Polynesia, which can boast of a few representatives of the British flora. 



I. Of the first of these extensions South Australia contains 100 

 indigenous plants common to Great Britain, in addition to which a large 

 number have become naturalised ; Tasmania contains 56, New Zealand has 



noctiflora, Silcnc conica, Pimpinclla magna, Pulicaria vulgaris, Atriplex pcdun- 

 culata, Aceras antliropophora, Ophrys aranifera, Spartina stricta. 



6. Atlantic type. Brassica moncnsis, Matthiola sinuata, Baphanus maritimus, 

 Scdinn anglicum, Cotyledon umbilicus, Bartsia viscosa, Euphorbia Pcplis, E. 

 portlandica, Sibthorpia europaca, Erica vagans, E. ciliaris, Polycarpon tctra- 

 phyllum, Adiantum Capil 1 us- Veneris, Cynodon Dactylon. 

 * Flora Indica, p. 109 (1855). 



f The following British trees and shrubs occur in India : —Berberis vulgaris, 

 I'runus Padus, P. Avium, /tubus fruticosus, B. saxatilis, Crataegus Oxyacantha, 

 Cotoneaster vulgaris, J'yvus Aria, Bibes Grossularia, B. nigrum, Hedera Helix, 

 Buxiis semju'rvivcns. f'hnus cam pest vis, Salix purpnirca, S. alba, Taxus baccata, and 

 Juniperus communis. 



