THYOPSIELLA | FRULLANIA. 43 
proximity of man. Yet they are not so often found buried in the depths 
of the forest as bordering mountain-streams, where they form a broad 
horizontal fringe on each side of the twigs of bushes and trees, or creep 
over and hang in tufts from branches and rocks. On bushy, stony 
hill-sides in the Andes, and on old lava streams scantily clad with a 
shrubby vegetation, where they are alternately exposed to a burning sun, 
and cooled and moistened by clouds that are rarely absent from the 
mountain-side for many hours together, as well as by the frequent heavy 
rains, is where they seem to most luxuriate. From the Amazonian 
plain they are apparently quite absent—unless a few exist near the sea- 
board, as they do farther north in the Guianas, and to southward in 
Brazil ; but from the mouth of the Amazon to the base of the Andes I 
did not meet a single species. In ascending the Andes the cladocarpous 
species are the first to appear, at about 400 metres, and they ascend no 
higher than 1600 metres. They are fine large-leaved plants, and at first 
sight look more like Madothecas than Frullanias. Low bushes of a Pilea, 
on the western declivity of the conical hill of Lamas, in the Peruvian 
Andes, are almost completely overrun with Fr. madothecoides S. and 
a large Lejeunea (L. devoluta 8.); Fr. bicornistipula grows both on the 
eastern side of the equatorial Andes (cataract of Agoyan, 1600™) and in 
the red-bark woods of Chimborazo, at 1200", on the western side, 
The acrocarpous species begin to appear on the slopes of the Andes at 
about the height where the cladocarpous species disappear, and probably 
extend upwards to the limit of arborescent vegetation, although I do not 
seem to have gathered any above 3500 metres. Fr. Brasiliensis (includ- 
ing its subspecies F’r. cylindrica, and several varieties) is as widely and 
commonly distributed in the mountainous parts of tropical 8. America as 
Fr. Tamarisci in Europe, and is still more variable, but always preserves 
its perfectly smooth cylindrical perianth. Absent from the great plains 
of the Amazon and Orinoco, it abounds in the middle wooded region of 
the Andes, on both sides of the chain, and all through the mountains of 
South Brazil, as well as in the West Indies and Mexico. Along with it, 
in the Peruvian and Quitenian Andes, grows Fr. strobilantha S.—a 
beautiful species, with acuminate leaves, and involucres that simulate 
fir cones, from the large turgid, chaffy, closely-packed bracts with 
recurved points. 
I gathered some fourteen species of Thyopsiella in the Andes, but the 
total number of known species in the world reaches perhaps thrice that 
‘number. Fr. Tamarisci occurs throughout the north temperate zone, 
but scarcely overpasses its limits. Abundant in Europe, it is much rarer 
in America, where it is partially replaced by an allied species, Wr. Asa- 
grayana. We have besides it in Europe two or three other species ; 
N. America and the Atlantic islands furnish a few more ; but the great 
bulk of the species are tropical, especially S. American and Malayan. 
A few Cape species have been identified with Indian, but it is doubtful 
if any Asian and American species be really identical ; and the Austra- 
lasian species seem all peculiar. 
I. Crapocarpica.—Flores 2 quasi laterales, ramulo brevissimo constantes. 
—Forsan melius cum subgenere antecedente (Meteoriopst) conjungende, 
distant autem species caule determinato, nec indefinite prolongato, et 
foliolis magnis latis. 
31. Fr. bicornistipula.—Elata subtripinnata. F. magna semi-cordato- 
