358
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE BRITISH FERNS, CLUB-MOSSES,
PEPPERWORTS, AND HORSETAILS.
T h e limits of this little volume will neither allow of a very
complete nor very detailed record of the situations in which
the various Eerns and Eern allies are severally found to
grow ; nor is it indeed necessary that their habitats should
be so fully and minutely stated in a book such as the present.
Instead, therefore, of attempting a full enumeration
of the localities where they have been found, we shall make
a selection, with the special view of indicating the districts
in which the various kinds have been known to occur, and
to which those who may desire to find them should more
especially direct their attention. The facts thus selected
will also afford some insight into the geographical range of
the species in the British Isles.
Such a record of facts, even though thus abridged, would,
however, have a very chaotic character if it were not systematized
in some way. The most obvious modes of arrangement
seem to be the alphabetical and the geographical; and
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION. 259
of these we prefer the latter, under the impression that the
former would be far less suggestive and useful.
In reference to this subject it has been well remarked by
Mr. Watson, in his 'Cybele Britannica,’ that the county
divisions are too numerous, and the ancient political divisions
too few, to express, with anything like completeness
and precision, the actual distribution of species ; the first,
because our information is imperfect ; the second, because
the areas are too extensive. He has, therefore, in treating
of the more extended subject of the distribution of the
flowering plants, proposed another set of divisions, of intermediate
extent, which he calls provinces; and as Mr.
Watson is to be considered our standard authority on this
question, we shall give his provinces, adding, however,
Ireland, which he has omitted, to our list, and severing the
western from the northern isles, as a connecting link with
that country. We shall thus have the United Kingdom and
Ireland divided in the following manner :—
Commencing at the south coast of England, a mesial line
is traced northwards, into the Highlands of Scotland, the
line corresponding with the boundaries of counties, and
being traced in that course which best divides the counties
whose rivers flow to the east coast, from those whose waters
1