338 YIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Blankenburg, at least 1400; for the Algse 2580; for Mosses 

 and Liverworts, according to Carl Muller of Halle, and Dr. 

 Gottsche of Hamburgh, 3800 ; and for Ferns 3250. For this 

 last important result we are indebted to the profound inves- 

 tigations made by Professor Kunze of Leipzig, on this group 

 of plants. It is a striking fact that the family of the Polypo- 

 diacea) alone includes 2165 of the whole number of described 

 Filices, whilst other forms, as the Lycopodiacse and Hymeno- 

 phyllaceae, number only 350 and 200. There are therefore 

 nearly as many described species among Ferns as among Grasses. 

 It is singular that no mention of the beautiful arborescent 

 ferns is to be found in the classic authors of antiquity, 

 Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny; while, from the infor- 

 mation given by the companions of Alexander, Aristobulus, 

 Megasthenes, and Nearchus, reference is made* to Bamboos, 

 " qua? fissis internodiis lembi vice vectitabant navigantes;" 

 to the Indian trees " quarum folia non minora clypeosunt;" to 

 the Fig-tree which takes root from its branches, and to Palms, 

 "tantse proceritatis, ut sagittis superjici nequeant." I find 

 the first mention of arborescent ferns in Oviedo.f " Among 

 ferns," says this experienced traveller, who had been ap- 

 pointed by Ferdinand the Catholic, Director of the Gold- 

 washings in Haiti, " there are some which I class with 

 trees, because they are as thick and high as Pine-trees. 

 (Helechos que yo cuento por arboles, tan gruesos como 

 grandes pinos y muy altos). They mostly grow among 

 the moimtains and where there is much water." This 

 estimate of their height is exaggerated, for in the dense 

 forests near Caripe even our Cyathea speciosa only attains a 

 height of 32 to 37 feet; and an admirable observer, Ernst 

 Dieffenbach, did not see in the most northern of the three 

 islands of New Zealand any trunks of Cyathea dealbata 

 exceeding 42^ feet. In the Cyathea speciosa and the 

 Meniscium of the Chaymas missions, we observed in the 

 midst of the most shady part of the primeval forest, that the 

 scaly stems of some of the most luxuriantly developed of these 

 trees were covered with a shining carbonaceous powder, 

 which appeared to be owing to a singular decomposition of 

 the fibrous parts of the old leaf stalks. J 



* Humboldt, de distrib. geogr. Plant., pp. 178, 213. 

 *r Historia de las Indias, 1535, fol. xc. 

 X Humboldt, Eelat. hist., t. i. p. 437. 



