GSNTI imii... I 



GENT] W VI 





posterior ; while in Flgwoi I I 



pogynousdisk is rerj eommoo inthesha| 



two earpellarj leaves are am. rior and post rior, tin 



the same transverse line as that which at par 



tin-' I in seems to connect this Order with Bindweeds ; anil • 



a parasitical, ^<-:il\ , leafless g< qua offers a 



Broomrapi s, 



A numerous ( hrderof berbact ous plant-, . w odh 

 nil parts of the world, from the regions oi |" rp< tu >l - 

 the summits of the mountains "f Europe, to the h 

 South America and India. They, however, do not appear in the 

 Flora of Melville [aland; but they form part oi that of the 

 Straits of Magellan. Tin- most common L;<im-. i- Gentiana, 

 cerning which and its alia--, the following observations will l»- 

 read with interest. 



"1-Vu genera displaj so lull a serii a of colours in the fl 

 this does ; red, blue, yellow and white, are all exhibited in it, with 

 many of the intermediate compound tints. Yellow and white 

 are rare in the regions of the Gentians, but almost invariably 

 present ; the red Bpecies are nearly confined to the And 

 South America and New Zealand. Amongst 1 Jr. Jam 

 Botanical Notes on the Flora of the Andes ol I' ru and Colombia, 

 i End the following interesting remark: <m sixteen • 

 Gentian with which I am acquainted, one half ar ur pur- 



ple, two blue, '>n<' yellow, and one white. Bot. Journ. voL ii. 

 p. 649, Their interior limit under the line we find, from the 

 same Bource, to be 7852 feet, and they ascend from thence nearly 

 to tin- limits of perpetual snow on Cotopaxi ; they do not in South 

 America descend to the level of the Bea in a lower latitude than 

 . r >4 u or thereabouts, where however there are no Alpine -; ■• 

 though the snow line does not descend below 4000 

 In the Himalaya, where the Bpecies are all blue-flowered, one 

 Bpecies has been gathered by my friend Mr. Edgworth, near 

 Hatha Kona, on the Mana Pass, at an elevation of 16,000 

 near the limit of perpetual -now ; and another reaches, in lat 31 

 N., tin- altitude oi 12,689, according to Dr. Etoyle. UluM. 

 Plant. Himal. vol. i. pp. 22 and 278, In Ceylon a B| 

 has been gathered at between 6000 an 1 



One Bpecies, <i. prostrata, //. !'■. A'., ha- a most extraordinary 

 range both in longitude and latitude ; in southern Europe it in- 

 habits the Carinthian Alps, between 6000 and 9000 feet high; 

 in Asia it has been found on the Altai Mountains, about lat. N. 

 52 . Its American range is much more remarkable, it having 

 been gathered on the tops of the rocky mountains in lat, ■'■- V 



when- they attain an elevation of 15,000 16, eet,and on the 



aast side of the Andes of S. America, in 35 S. : i 

 Cape Negro, in the Straits of Magellan in lat. 



Behring's Straits in lat. < ■• V 



'• The tan of the occurrence, and the great numl 

 only tin- more elevated regions of the temperate an i ti 

 tin- snnw limit, renders it very remarkable that thej shuul I 

 in the higher latitudes both of tin- northern an 1 soutl 

 speaking, tin- inhabitants of these elevated and cold n 

 Orders ami Genera as compose the mass oi Polar \ 

 with certain groups of Ranunculacese, < (rami 

 fte., I>ut not with Gentianese ; tin- proportion which th< 

 rate zones bear to the other plant- ol thi 

 Bpecies on the other, is in both cast - remarkabl) small 

 tin- Floras of tin- Polar and American Islands : * 

 0> the Arctic Sea shore- in the North, or I 

 Antarctic Islands in the South ; and again in othi - 

 of Chili and Patagonia, they an- infinitely It — nun* • 

 and south Europe, or the Andes of the . qua! ■■." 

 p, 65. 



i i i i i \ \ \ 



