ILLUSTRATIONS (28). FERNS. 337 



acquainted with any other arctic species which is equally an 

 inhabitant of the opposite polar regions." The South Shetland 

 Islands, which are separated by Bransfield Straits from 

 cTUrville's " Terre de Louis-Philippe ' : and from Peak 

 Haddington, a volcano, 7046 feet high, and situated in 

 64° 12' south lat., have recently been visited by Dr. Eights, a 

 botanist from the United States. He found there (probably 

 in 62° or 62^° south lat.) a small grass, Aira antarctica,* which 

 is "the most antarctic flowering plant hitherto discovered." 



Even in Deception Island, belonging to the same group, 

 62° 50', only lichens are met with, and no longer any species 

 of grass; and in like manner further south-east, in Cock- 

 burn's Island (64° 12') near Palmer's Land, only Lecanoras, 

 Lecideas, and five foliaceous Mosses, among which is our 

 German Bryum argenteum, were gathered. " This appears to 

 be the Ultima Thule of antarctic vegetation," for further south 

 even terrestrial cryptogamia are wanting. In the great bay 

 formed by Victoria Land, on a small island lying opposite to 

 Mount Herschel (in 71° 49' lat.), and on Franklin Island, 92 

 miles north of the volcano, Erebus, (12,366 feet in height), 

 and in 76° V south lat., Hooker found no trace of vegetation. 

 In extreme northern latitudes, the distribution of even the 

 higher organisms is very different; for here phanerogamic 

 plants advance 18^° nearer to the pole than in the southern 

 hemisphere. Waklen Island (80^° north lat.) possesses still 

 ten species of phanerogamia. Antarctic phanerogamic vege- 

 tation is also poorer in species at equal distances from the 

 pole; thus Iceland has five times more phanerogamia than 

 the southern group of Auckland and Campbell Islands, but 

 the uniform vegetation of the antarctic regions is, from 

 climatic causes, both more succulent and more luxuriant. f 



(28) p. 229— "Ferns." 



If we estimate the whole number of the cryptogamia 

 hitherto described at 19,000 species, as has been done by 

 Dr. Klotzsch, a naturalist possessing a profound acquaintance 

 with the Agamic plants, we shall have for Fungi 8000 (of 

 which Agarici constitute the eighth part) ; for Lichens, ac- 

 cording to J. von Flotow of Hirschberg, and Hampe of 



* Hooker, Icon, plant, vol. ii. tab. 150. 



f Compare Hooker, Flora antarctica, pp. vii. 74, 215, with Sir 

 Jaines Ross, Voyage in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, 1839 — 

 1843, vol. ii. pp. 335—342. 



Z 



