MARTIUS ON THE BOTANY OF BRAZII,. 37 



Amazon, and each of these rivers appears, agreeably to its 

 geographical extent and to the nature of its high lands at the 

 sources, to possess its peculiar Flora, which assimilates itself 

 the more to that of the Amazon the nearer they approach the 

 latter. The Flora of these large tributaries has hitherto been 

 scarcely examined. 



The regions that have now been noticed in their general 

 outline may properly be considered as the principal ones, or 

 provinces of the empire of the Brazilian Flora. Many, we 

 may say, by the greater part of the individual species, belong 

 to one or other of these regions. Certain plants, however, are 

 spread over many regions : many of the Dryades and Hama- 

 dryades appear throughout the whole extent of the tropics : so 

 it is likewise with many of the trees that belong to the Regio 

 montano-nemorosa, and the Regio calido-sicca. Numerous 

 herbaceous plants are equally generally distributed. These 

 widely extended plants Von Martius terms Fagce ; and many 

 of these, he observes, belong to the northern tropical forma- 

 tion of Eastern South America, or of the Flora of the Ori- 

 noco district, as a province of the empire of the Flora of 

 Brazil, whilst the Regio extra-tropica, oi Planter tsapacz^ ought 

 to be reckoned to belong, not to this empire, but to the Flora 

 of Buenos Ay res, Tucunian and Salta, or that of the cis-an- 

 dine extra-tropical empire. 



VI. The principles for the formation of the Herharium 

 FlorcB Brasiliensis are in part indicated in the preceding in- 

 troduction ; the rest are scarcely of sufficient interest to in- 

 duce us to make extracts from them. 



