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speaks thus of their habits and geographical arrangement: — '' Pahns, the 

 splendid offspring of Tellus and Phoebus, chiefly acknowledge as their native 

 land those happy regions seated within the tropics, where the beams of the 

 latter for ever shine. Inhabitants of either world, they hardly range beyond 

 35° in the southern, or 40° in the northern hemisphere. Particular species 

 scarcely extend beyond their own peculiar and contracted limits, on which 

 account there are few countries favourable for their production in which 

 some local and peculiar species are not found ; the few that are dispersed over 

 many lands are chiefly Cocos nucifera, Acrocomia sclerocarpa, and Borassus 

 flabelliformis. It is probable that the number of species thus scattered over 

 the face of nature will be found to amount to 1000 or more. Of these not 

 a few love the humid banks of rivulets and streams, others occupy the 

 shores of the ocean, and some ascend into alpine regions; some collect into 

 dense forests, others spring up singly or in clusters over the plains." 

 Progr. 6. But if this statement be true as to the probable number of 

 Palms, how little can be now known of their structure, seeing that not 

 more than 175 are at this moment described, of which 119 are South Ame- 

 rican, 14 African, and 42 Indian. The testimony of Von Martins is, how- 

 ever, confirmed by Humboldt, who also asserts that there must be an in- 

 credible number still to discover in equinoctial regions, especially if we 

 consider how little is yet known of Africa, Asia, New Holland, and America. 

 He and Bonpland discovered a new species in almost every 50 miles of 

 travelling, so narrow are the limits within which their range is confined. 

 A different opinion appears to be entertained by Schonw, a respectable 

 Danish writer upon botanical geography, whose views deserve to be quoted, 

 although he is far from having had such personal means of judging as 

 Humboldt and Von Martius. He seems to consider that we are acquainted 

 already with the greater part of the Palms ; for he says, " it appears from 

 the reports of travellers that such Palm woods as those of South America 

 are less frequent in other parts of the world. Africa and New Holland 

 seem to be less favourable to this tribe, for on the Congo, Smith found 

 only from 3 to 4 Palms. In Guinea we know merely of the same number; 

 and of the other African Palms, 6 belong to the Isles of Bourbon and 

 France. New Holland has, in the torrid zone, three species, while Forster's 

 Prodromus of the Flora of the South Sea Islands contains four." The most 

 northern limit of Palms is that of Chamserops palmetto in N. America, in 

 lat. 34°-36°, and of Chamserops humilis in Europe, near Nice, in 43°-44° 

 N. lat. They are found in the southern hemisphere as low as 38° in New 

 Zealand. " It is remarkable that no species of Palm has been found in 

 South Africa, nor was any observed by M. Leschenault on the west coast 

 of New Holland, even within the tropic." Broicn in Flinders, 511. If 

 Palms were not, as some say, among the earliest plants that clothed the 

 face of the globe, none of their remains existing, mixed with the Ferns and 

 Equisetums of the old coal formations, it is at least certain that their creation 

 dates long before that of the present Flora of the globe. But it is probable 

 that they really did exist at the most remote periods ; for the Noggera- 

 thia foliosa of Sternbero; from the coal-fields of Bohemia seems really to 

 have been a Palm; and M. Adolphe Brone:niart refers two other fossils of 

 the same epoch to this family. It is at least certain that they appeared 

 immediately after the developement of Cycadese ceased in' European lati- 

 tudes, and that of Coniferae took a more decided form; as we find unques- 

 tionable traces of them in those deposits above the plastic clay which 

 Brongniart calls Marno-charbonneux. 



Puoi'ERTiES. Wine, oil, wax, flour, sugar, salt, says Humboldt, are 

 the produce of this tribe; to which Von Martius adds, thread, utensils, 



