312 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



( 15 ) p. 238." 



It is remarkable, that of this majestic form of plants (some of 

 which rise to more than twice the height of the Royal Palace at 

 Berlin, and to which the Indian Amarasinha gave the character- 

 istic appellation of " Kings among the Grasses") up to the time of 

 the death of Linnaeus only 15 species were described. The Peru- 

 vian travellers Ruiz and Pavon added to these 8 more species. 

 Bonpland and I, in passing over a more extensive range of country, 

 from 12 S. lat. to 21 N* lat., described 20 new species of palms, 

 and distinguished as many more, but without being able to obtain 

 complete specimens of their flowers. (Humboldt de distrib. geogr. 

 Plantarum, pp. 225-233.) At the present time, 44 years after my 

 return from Mexico, there are from the Old and New World, in- 

 cluding the East Indian species brought by Griffith, above 440 

 regularly described species. The Enumeratio Plantarum of my 

 friend Kunth, published in 1841, had already 356 species. 



A few, but only a few species of palms, are, like our Coniferae, 

 Quercinese, and Betulineae, social plants : such are the Mauritia 

 flexuosa, and two species of ChamaBrops, one of which, the Cha- 

 maerops humilis, occupies extensive tracts of ground near the 

 mouth of the Ebro, and in Valencia ; and the other, C. mocini, dis- 

 covered by us on the Mexican shore of the Pacific, and . entirely 

 without prickles, is also a social plant. While some kinds of palms, 

 including Chamasrops and Cocos, are littoral or shore-loving trees, 

 there is in the tropics a peculiar group of mountain palms, which, 

 if I am not mistaken, was entirely unknown previous to my South 

 American travels. Almost all species of the family of palms grow 

 on the plains or low grounds, in a mean temperature of between 

 22 a and 24 Reaumur (81. 5 and 86, Fahr.); rarely ascending 

 so high as 1900 English feet on the declivities of the Andes : but 

 in the mountain palms to which I have alluded, the beautiful wax- 

 palm (Ceroxylon andicola), the Palineto of Azufral at the Pass of 

 Quindiu (Oreodoxa frigida), and the reed-like Kunthia montana 

 (Cana de la Vibora) of Pasto, attain elevations between 6400 and 

 9600 English feet above the level of the sea, where the thermome- 

 ter often sinks at night as low as 4. 8 and 6 of Reaumur (42. 8 



