96 



BOTANY. 



BRAZIL. 



gesting in their plan Dr. Gray's rather than 

 Sachs's as their model. Chapman's " Flora of 

 the Southern United States east of the Missis- 

 sippi River " was republished in 1883, with ad- 

 ditions up to date, leaving no considerable 

 portion of the United States, excepting Texas 

 and Louisiana, and the Montana and Wyoming 

 regions, without a special flora. 



In other lands this era will be distinguished 

 by the completion of several great works, par- 

 ticularly the "Flora of Australia," by F. von 

 M Oiler, finished in ten volumes about 1877; the 

 "Flora Orientalis," by E. Boissier, covering 

 the Orient from Greece and Egypt to India, 

 and finished in five volumes in 1884. 



The great modern work on systematic bot- 

 any, Bentham and Hooker's " Genera Planta- 

 rum," in three large volumes, was begun in 

 1852 and finished in 1883. This will serve as 

 a guide in this work for the next thirty or 

 forty years probably. Some of the great floras, 

 like the " Flora Brasiliensis," the " Flora of 

 British India," the botanical part of the "Bio- 

 logia Americana Centralis " (Flora of Central 

 America), can only report progress. 



Fossil Botany. In botanical geography and 

 the distribution of species, the most important 

 works of recent issue are those in fossil botany. 

 Lesquereux's volumes on the " Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary Floras of the Territories " have been 

 supplemented by Heer's magnificent work, 

 " Flora Fossilis Arctica," in seven volumes, the 

 last published in 1883, just before the author's 

 death. This work has abundantly confirmed 

 Dr. Gray's opinion, formed in 1856, before any 

 except the merest fragments of these discov- 

 eries were known, that a mild climate reigned 

 in the latitude of Behring Strait in the Ter- 

 tiary, allowing the intermingling of North 

 American and Asiatic types of plants, and that 

 subsequent glaciatiou drove these types south- 

 ward, and those suited to the similar climates 

 of eastern Asia and eastern North America 

 survived, thus exhibiting in two widely sep- 

 arated regions remarkably similar floras, the 

 species being not infrequently identical. Heer's 

 latest volume records a fossil palm in Green- 

 land, and concludes that the mean annual tem- 

 perature for that latitude in the Tertiary Mio- 

 cene was between 10 and 11 centigrade. The 

 present flora of North America had its origin 

 not later than the middle of the Cretaceous, 

 where, as well as more abundantly in the 

 Tertiary, are found many fossil species, either 

 identical with living, or near enough to be 

 their immediate ancestors. 



Miscellaneous. Several works of a general 

 character, but of the highest value, have ap- 

 peared in French. One, translated into Eng- 

 lish in 1873, was Le Maout and Decaisne's 

 "Descriptive and Analytic Botany," a general 

 review of all orders of plants, and copiously 

 illustrated ; another, in 1880, by Alphonse de 

 Candolle, " La Phytographie," gives a philo- 

 sophical review of the art of describing and 

 studying plants ; another, in 1883, by the same 



author, on "L'Origine des Plantes Cultivees," 

 gives the results of life-long attention to this 

 subject. Every year brings out important 

 works. The publication of Strasburger's "Bo- 

 tanische Practicum," within a few months, and 

 the announcement of a new work by De Bary, 

 " Comparative Morphology and Biology of 

 Fungi, Myxomycetes, and Bacteria," are only 

 a few instances. A "Journal of Mycology" 

 (Fungi) will be started in America in 1885. 

 Similar journals have existed in England, Ger- 

 many, France, and Italy, for some years. 



BRAZIL^ an empire of South America, the 

 only monarchy in the Western Hemisphere. 



Boundary Questions. The only questions of 

 limits now pending between the Brazilian em- 

 pire and other countries are those with Co- 

 lombia, France, and the Argentine Republic. 

 Numerous attempts have been made to effect 

 a settlement of the first by diplomatic means. 

 The last, involving the persistent claim of Bra- 

 zil to the Misiones Territory, has of late given 

 rise to apprehensions of an ultimate appeal to 

 arms. " The Argentine Government is con- 

 tinually receiving supplies of arms of modern 

 invention," writes a Rio journalist. "Is it 

 merely for ostentation that the republic is mak- 

 ing such considerable outlay ? Her obstinate 

 persistence in the question of limits must of 

 necessity add to the delay consequent upon the 

 action of the commission appointed for the 

 study of boundaries. Should we not look for- 

 ward to the natural consequences of a demand 

 so contrary to justice and right? Let us not 

 deceive ourselves ; our situation is neither en- 

 tirely advantageous nor exempt from danger. 

 Our first and most important need, in case of 

 war, is the horse the Argentine Republic is 

 our market and our cavalry is at present dis- 

 mounted." The old boundary question with 

 France, relating to the undefined dividing-line 

 between French Guiana and Brazil, has now 

 assumed a new phase, the French Govern- 

 ment having sent out (in 1884) a scientific ex- 

 ploring expedition for the purpose of studying 

 the natural condition and capabilities of the 

 great Amazonas region, with a view to the ex- 

 tension of commerce between the two coun- 

 tries, and not territorial conquest. 



Area, Territorial Divisions, Population, etc. With 

 an area of over 3,200,000 square miles (nearly 

 two fifths of the total area of the Southern 

 Continent), Brazil is divided into twenty prov- 

 inces and one neutral municipality, which, with 

 their respective populations (as estimated at 

 the end of 1883), are as follow : * 



PROVINCES. Population. 



Alagroas 897,379 



Amazonas 80,942 



Bahia 1.655.408 



Ceara 722,000 



Espirito Santo 100,717 



Goyaz 191 ,711 



Maranhao 430,059 



Matto-Grosso 72.051 



* Elaborate statements concerning area, territorial divis- 

 ions, population, etc., may be found in the volumes for 1S72 

 and 1878. 



