354 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Mount Erebus, 12,400 English feet high (lat. 76 7' South), Hooker 

 found not a single trace of vegetable life. It is quite different in 

 respect to the extension even of the forms of higher vegetable organi- 

 zation in the high northern latitudes. Phgenogamous plants there 

 approach 18 nearer to the Pole than in the Southern Hemisphere : 

 Walden Island (N. lat. 80) has still ten species. The antarctic 

 phaenogamous vegetation is also poorer in species at corresponding 

 distances from the Pole (Iceland has five times as many flowering 

 plants as the southern group of Auckland and Campbell Islands) ; 

 but this less varied antarctic vegetation is, from climatic reasons, 

 more luxuriant and succulent. (Compare Hooker, Flora antarctica, 

 p. vii. 74, and 215, with Sir James Ross, Voyage in the Southern 

 and Antarctic Regions, 1839-1843, vol. ii. p. 335-342.) 



()p. 244. "Ferns." 



If, with a naturalist deeply versed in the knowledge of the Agamse, 

 Dr. Klotzsch, we estimate the whole number of cryptogamic species 

 hitherto described at 19,000, this gives to Fungi 8000 (of which 

 the Agarici constitute l-8th) ; Lichens, according to J. yon Flotow 

 of Hirschberg, and Hampe of Blankenburg, at least 1400 ; Algse 

 2580 ; Mosses and Liver-worts, according to Carl Midler of Halle, 

 and Dr. Grottsche of Hamburgh, 3800 ; and Ferns 3250. We are 

 indebted for this last important result to the thorough investigation 

 of all that is known concerning this group of plants by Professor 

 Kunze of Leipsio. It is remarkable that, of the entire number of 

 described Filices, the family of Polypodiaceae, alone,' comprises 2165 

 species; while other forms, even Lycopodiacese and Hymenophyl- 

 laceae, only count 350 and 200. There are, therefore, almost as 

 many described ferns as described grasses. 



It is remarkable that, in the ancient classic writers, Theophrastus, 

 Dioscorides, and Pliny, no notice occurs of the beautiful form of 

 arborescent ferns ; while, from information derived from the com- 

 panions of Alexander, Aristobulus, Megasthenes, and Nearchus, 

 mention is made of Bamboos "quae fissis internodiis lembi vice 

 vectitabant navigantesj" of the Indian trees "quarum folia non 

 xninora clypeo suntj" of the fig-tree of which the branches take 

 root round the parent stem ; and of Palms " tantse proceritatis, ut 



