34 FOOTNOTES FROM 



have been found growing near hot springs in Cochin- 

 China, and fringing the sides of the geysers of Iceland, 

 where they must have vegetated in a heat equal to 186 

 degrees ; while, on the other hand, they have been 

 gathered in Melville Island at 35 degrees, or only just 

 above the freezing-point. Though frozen hard under 

 the snow-wreaths of winter for several months, their 

 vitality is unimpaired; and though subjected to the 

 scorching rays of the summer's sun, they continue green 

 and unblighted. Even when thoroughly desiccated into 

 a brown unshapen mass that almost crumbles into dust 

 when touched by the hand, they revive under the in- 

 fluence of the genial shower, become green as an emerald ; 

 every pellucid leaf serving as a tiny mirror on which to 

 catch the stray sunbeams. Specimens dried and pressed 

 in the herbarium for half a century, have been resus- 

 citated on the application of moisture, and the seed pro- 

 cured from their capsules has readily germinated. They 

 grow freely in the Arctic regions, where there is a long 

 twilight of six months' duration ; and they luxuriate in 

 the dazzling uninterrupted light of the tropics. They 

 are found thriving amid moist steam-like vapours, with 

 orchids and tillandsias, in the deep American forests; 

 and they may be seen in tufts here and there on the dry 

 and arid sands of the Arabian deserts. It matters not 

 to the healthy exercise of their functions whether the 

 surrounding air be stagnant or in motion, for we find 

 them on the mountain top amid howling winds and 

 driving storms, and in the calm, silent, secluded wood, 

 where hardly a breeze penetrates to ruffle their leaves. 

 The range of flowering plants is circumscribed by con- 



