GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 327 



700 species to be distributed over all other temperate regions 

 of the world. Thus we arrive at the conclusion that not more 

 than one -tenth of known species of Agaricini are tropical, 

 whilst from circumstances of locality, elevation, etc., as many 

 as three-tenths have occurred in tropical countries ; that more 

 than half of the total number of Agaricini occur in Europe, 

 and nearly two-thirds in Europe and North America. There- 

 fore the northern temperate zone is the most favourable for the 

 Agaricini, and there is no reason to doubt that the temperate 

 regions of Asia will nearly equal those of Europe and America 

 when they are properly explored. 



If we take two genera which systematically follow each 

 other, Amanita and Lcpiota, we shall find remarkable diver- 

 gences in their distribution, an explanation of which we 

 discover in the fact that in the former the species are large, 

 soft, and fragile, containing much water, whilst in the latter 

 a great number are small, and all are dry and tough, as 

 compared with other true Agarics. Hence the former genus 

 is essentially that of the temperate, and the latter of the sub- 

 tropical zone. In Amanita we reckon 80 species, of which 

 61 are European and North American, and 9 Australian. 

 The four Indian species only occur high up on the Himalayas, 

 and the one South American on the slopes of the Andes. 

 Hence the only tropical species to be accounted for are two 

 in Ceylon, one in Algeria, one in Java, and one in Cuba ; the 

 Javanese is doubtless not an Amanita at all. In this case 

 seven -eighths are distinctly located in the temperate zone, 

 one - twentieth at a temperate elevation, and only one- 

 twentieth presumably tropical. On the contrary, in Lefiota, 

 with a total of 225 species, there are 118 belonging to tem- 

 perate regions, and 107, or nearly one-half, to the tropical. 

 This is a greater proportion than occurs in any other genus 

 of the fleshy Agarics. Those of the temperate zone are 88 

 for Europe, 1 6 wholly United States — adding of course a great 

 number of European — and 13 Australasian (out of a total of 

 33) and 1 Siberian. Those of the tropical zone are — 68 for 

 Ceylon, 6 for India, 11 for South Africa, 15 for South 

 America, 3 for Cuba, and 4 for Bonin Island, Java, and Hong- 

 Kong. Circumstances like these render it extremely ditticult 



