526 MR. G. BENTHAM ON COMPOSITE. 
haps from the Upper Rio San Francisco, and possibly a few from 
the unexplored regions of Guiana bordering on Venezuela; but 
the collections of Schomburgk, Spruce, and others from Guiana 
and North Brazil have hitherto shown fewer remarkable Com- 
posite than of several other orders. 
6. Chilian Region. 
The Chilian or extratropical South-American region of Compo- 
site comprises the whole of that continent south of the Andine 
and Brazilian ones. It is in some degree a mixed region: 
the elevated ridge partakes of the general Andine character as to 
its Composite ; the extreme south might perhaps be separated as 
a portion of a general Antarctic region ; and many of the strictly 
Chilian genera, confined to the Cordilleras, do not reach the 
plains of Buenos Ayres to the east. Yet, on the whole, it is a 
general area of preservation of Composite races sufficiently distinct 
from the Andine and Brazilian, which immediately border it on 
the north, to be regarded as one general region—the more so, as in 
its repetitions or representations of distant northern races the 
eastern districts take their proportionate share with the western 
ones. The flora of Chili proper is perhaps better known than 
that of Brazil or the Andes; but still there is a large tract of 
country in the interior, especially where it borders on Bolivia, as 
well as the provinces of Tucuman and others of La Plata, in 
regard to which the data are too scattered to enable us to judge 
readily to which region they should be referred. The Atacama 
plants described by Philippi evidently belong to the Chilian, 
and are included under that head in the preceding Table. 
The small or monotypic endemic genera, about as numerous as 
the Brazilian ones, bear a much greater proportion to the total 
number of Composite in the region, although they are still con- 
siderably fewer than in the Mexican region. The large American 
genera Vernonia, Eupatorium, and Baccharis have much fewer 
representatives than within the tropics, and Mikania has but à 
single species, a deficiency partly compensated by a greater specific 
luxuriance in Senecio and some specially Chilian genera; and the 
average of species to a genus is brought to a little above fivej'the 
same as in the Mexican region. Extratropical South America 
appears to have afforded physical conditions favourable at once 
for the preservation of locally limited types, either the remnants 
of very aucient introductions or differentiated in the region itself, 
