Page:Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Volume 1.djvu/354

Rh with them some of those inhabiting the low country, such as Lamium intermedium, a common plant also in Scotland.

The fauna of our mountain regions, so far as it is developed, bears the same relation to more northern countries. The alpine hare (Lepus variabilis), the ptarmigan, and the capercailzie (now extinct), may be cited among the higher animals; and the insects which give a character to the entomology of the Highlands are Scandinavian forms. The absence of peculiar pulmonifera is as good evidence as the presence of the insects, for whilst almost every mountain region in Europe is distinguished for its peculiar Helices and their allies, the British, like the Scandinavian Alps, are remarkable only for their deficiencies.

The Highland, and part of the Scottish and Hebridean types of British vegetation, as defined by Mr. Watson, agree with the fourth flora, as defined above. In his Hebridean type he includes the rare Eriocaulon septangulare, a very remarkable plant, known in Europe only in the Hebrides, and Connamara, in the West of Ireland; elsewhere it is an inhabitant of Boreal America, which is its true native country, and from whence, either by means of transport, now or anciently in action, it has, in all probability, been introduced naturally into the British Isles.

V. The fifth and general flora of the British Islands—everywhere present, alone or in company with the others—is identical as to species with the Flora of Central and Western Europe—that which may be properly styled Germanic. Such of its members as are generally distributed compose the British type of Mr. Watson, whilst its more local species are distributed among, and form part of his Germanic, English, and Scottish types. This is a flora which has overspread many local floras throughout Europe, and given a general character to the vegetation derived from the presence of such truly common species as Bellis perennis, Primula acaulis, Ranunculus acris, Ficaria ranunculoides, Cardamine hirsuta, and our most common trees and shrubs. Its scarcer plants are of more interest, from the clear manner in which they mark the progress of the flora, and the line it took in its advance westwards. Thus, we find still limited to the eastern counties of England, such species as Anemone pulsatilla, Myosurus minimus, Turritis glabra, Frankenia lævis, Holosteum umbellatum, Schleranthus perennis, Artemesia campestris, Melampyrum cristatum, Veronica verna, Veronica triphyllos, Stratiotes aloides, and Sturmia Loeselii. Others again, whilst they have extended over considerable tracts, or into several districts of England and Scotland, have not found their way to Ireland, as Thalictrum majus, Ranunculus hirsutus, Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Thlaspi alpestre, Lychnis viscosus, Stellaria nemorum, Genista anglica, Astragulus hypoglottis, Spiræa filipendula, Potentilla verna, Ligusticum scoticum, Valeriana dioica, Scabiosa columbaria, Campanula glomerata, Gagea lutea, Acorus