CiiAi'. I] CIIARACTl'RS OF Till: TI-.MIM-.RATI': CI.IMATF. 421 



i|uitc subordinate. The conifers of the south temperate zone are also 

 chiefly Pinaceae, yet not of the sub-families Abietoidcac and Taxodioideae, 

 as in the north, but chiefly Araucarioideac (Araucaria, Agathis). The 

 Taxaceae (Podocarpus, Dacrydium), particularly in the eastern hemisphere, 

 arc more important constituents of the forest in the south than in the north. 



KlG. 232. Zaniia intcgrikilia in Florida. From a phutograph by II. G. Webber. 



Monocotyledones. 



In the warm temperate belts, as in the tropics, Monocotjdedones are 

 represented not only by grasses and other herbs, but also by tall and 

 striking forms, which belong chiefly to Liliaceac and Amaryllidaceae, and 

 only to a very slight extent to the Palmae and Bambuseae so prominent 

 in the tropics owing to their size, and do not belong at all to the 

 Pandanaceae and Scitamincae. Thus species of Aloe are in particular 

 characteristic of South Africa (Fig. 23^^), species of Yucca (Fig. 234), 

 Da.s\lirion and Agave of warm North America, species of Xanthorrhoea 

 of Australia (F'ig. 2^s)^ Cordyline australis, attaining 10 meters in height, 

 of New Zealand (Fig. 236), and the gigantic dragon-tree, Dracaena Draco, 

 of the Canary Islands. 



Mesothermic Palniac are not numerous, and are confined to a few 

 warm tracts, where they are rarely prominent, at least in the wild state. 

 Their most familiar and most widely spread representative, Phoenix dactj'- 

 lifera, is not known wild ; Pritchardia filifera, which is often planted as 



