332 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



grass-genus Chusquea, the Carrizo of the Spanish settlers. In 

 the pine forests of Mexico, Climbing Plants seem, to be entirely 

 wanting ; but in New Zealand a fragrant Pandanus, Frey- 

 cinetia Banksii, together with one of the Smilacece, Ripogonum 

 parviflorum (R. Brown), which renders the forests almost 

 impenetrable, winds round a gigantic fir-tree more than 200 

 feet high, Podocarpus dacryoides (Rich.), called Kakikatea 

 in the language of the country.* 



A striking contrast to these Climbing Grasses and Creep- 

 ing Pandaneas is afforded by the splendid many-coloured 

 blossoms of the Passion flowers (among which, however, we 

 ourselves found one arborescent, upright, species (Passiflora 

 glauca) in the Andes of Popayan, at an elevation of nearly 

 10,500 feet, and by the Bignoniacea?, Mutisia?, Alstromeriae, 

 TJrvillese, and Aristolochise. Among the latter, our Aristo- 

 lochia cordata has a coloured (purplish red) calyx, about seven- 

 teen inches in diameter ; " flores gigantei, pueris mitree instar 

 inservientes." Owing to the quadrangular form of their stalks, 

 their flattening, which is not occasioned by any external 

 pressure, and a band-like undulatory motion, many of these 

 climbing plants have a peculiar physiognomy. The diagonal 

 intersections of the stems of Bignonias and Banisterias form, 

 by means of furrows in the ligneous substance, and through 

 its clefts, where the bark penetrates to some depth, cruciform 

 or mosaic- like figures. f 



(26) p. 228—" The form of Aloes." 



To this group of plants, which is characterised by a great 

 similarity, belong Yucca aloifolia, which penetrates as for 

 north as Florida and South Carolina; Y. angustifolia (Nutt.), 

 which advances to the banks of the Missouri; Aletris arborea; 

 the Dragon-tree of the Canaries, and two other Dracamas 

 belonging to New Zealand ; arborescent Euphorbias ; and Aloe 

 dichotoma, Linn., (formerly the genus Rhipidodendrum of 

 Willdenow), the celebrated Koker-boom, whose stem is 

 four feet in thickness, about twenty feet high, and has a 

 crown measuring 426 feet round. J The forms which I have 



* Ernest Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, 1843, vol. i. p. 426. 



+ See the very correct delineations in Adrien dc Jussieu, Cours de 

 Botanique, pp. 77—79, figs. 105—108. 



X Patterson, Reisen in das Land der Hottentotlen unci der Kaffern, 

 1790, s. 55. 



