30 THE GEOGnAnilCAL DISTRIBUTION 



of the earth's surface, and almost all have 

 their special and peculiar country, out of which 

 they are rarely or never found. Humboldt 

 and Bonpland met with a new species in every 

 fifty miles of travelling, and many botanical 

 travellers have noticed the very local distri- 

 bution of most of the species. Some few, 

 however, such as the cocoa and date palms, the 

 palmyra, (Bomssiis flcibeUiformis,) and some 

 others, are widely diffused. Of this majestic 

 form of plants, only fifteen species had been 

 described up to the time of the death of 

 Linnaius, which took place in 1778. The 

 Peruvian travellers, Ruiz and Pavon, added 

 only eight ; whilst Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 traversing a greater extent of country, (from 12° 

 south latitude to 21° north latitude,) described 

 twenty new species, and distinguished and 

 named as many more, without however being 

 able to procure their blossoms in a perfect 

 state. When Dr. Royle published his illustra- 

 tions of Himalayan botany, in 1839, he was 

 acquainted with 179 species, of which 119 

 were American, 14 African, and 42 Indian, and 

 he considered it improbable that that number 

 would ever be doubled. Yet the " Enumeratio 

 Plantanim" of Kunth, which appeared in 1841, 

 (only two years later,) contained no fewer thaa 



