OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 309 
“The Cryptogamie are far more numerous, and I have 
paid particular attention to these, because others Naturalists 
can collect pheenogamous plants, while few will be disposed 
to devote that minute attention necessary for the investiga- 
tion of this Class. It has been an object with me to gather 
as many species as possible of each Natural Order, being ex- 
tremely anxious to ascertain the proportion which the Natural 
Orders bear to each other in their respective Antarctic longi- 
tudes, and to each other in their own localities: as a matter 
of primary importance in the elucidation of Botanical Geo- 
graphy, and as evincing the effects of climate upon the Vege- 
table Kingdom, several of the tabular results I have already 
hastily drawn out show a delightful accordance; nor do I 
know of any result of this expedition which has given me so 
much pleasure as to find how beautifully certain groups rise 
in the scale as we proceed south, proving the accuracy of the 
learned Mr. Brown's views. As we advance in the Antarctic 
Regions, Fungi disappear and Lichens increase. Among the 
Mosses the Pleurocarpi diminish in proportion to the Acro- 
carpi; as does the relative number of Pleurocarpi which 
bear fruit, to those which are barren; Cyperacee decrease, 
and Dicotyledones bear a smaller proportion to the Mono- 
. cotyledones.” 
Our latest tidings of the Antarctic Expedition were dated 
the Falkland Islands, Nov. 30th; about a fortnight after its 
return from Hermite Island, and on the point of proceeding, 
as was expected, again to the south, in Weddell’s track ; 
there, we trust, to visit some of the New South Shetland 
group, where a Grass (Aira Antarctica) published by us in 
the * Icones Plantarum," was found, and which is perhaps 
the most southern phenogamic plant yet known to us. 
Previous, however, to the departure of the “Erebus” and 
“Terror,” two very large Wardian cases were despatched to 
the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, filled with plants, the 
one the productions of Hermite Island, Cape Horn; the 
other containing the plants of the Falkland Islands, hice 
latter was filled by the kindness of Mr. Lyall of the * Terror." 
