70 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



fires pass quickly onwards and do not appear to kill or injure 

 the trees or even the small herbaceous plants. In fact, 

 numbers of these plants as soon as the rains come produce 

 foliage earlier than where there has been no fire, and often 

 produce flowers when unburnt trees or shrubs of the same 

 species remain flowerless. Mr. Warming and other botanists 

 believe that the practice of firing the campos was a native 

 one long before the European occupation, and that many of 

 the plants have become adapted to this annual burning so as 

 to benefit by it. 



It is interesting to note here the opinions of two eminent 

 botanists, only thirty years ago, as to the comparative riches 

 of certain tropical and temperate countries. In his great 

 work on The Vegetation of the Globe, Griesbach thus 

 refers to the Brazilian flora : " The results of the explorations 

 of Martius, Burchell, and Gardner, cannot be compared with 

 those furnished by the Cape. The number of endemic species 

 may perhaps reach 10,000, but the area is twenty times 

 greater than that of Cape Colony, and we may conclude that, 

 as regards its botanical riches, the Brazilian flora is very 

 far from rivalling that of the extremity of South Africa." 

 Gardiner, however, after spending three years in collecting 

 over a large portion of the interior of Brazil, though chiefly 

 in the campos and mountain ranges, concludes his account of 

 his travels with these words : " The country is beautiful, and 

 richer than any other in the world in plants." This general 

 statement may not be strictly true, but it seems clear that 

 the facts already adduced are sufficient to show that, as 

 regards the comparison of temperate with tropical floras, 

 there can be no doubt as to the superiority of the latter. 

 This point will, I think, be made still clearer in the following 

 discussion of some almost unnoticed facts. In the case of 

 Brazil and Cape Colony, however, it is clear that Griesbach 

 was greatly in error. The whole area of extra -tropical 

 South Africa has probably been as well explored botanically 

 as Brazil, the richest portions of which have been only as it 

 were sampled. Yet we find less than 14,000 species in the 

 former against 22,800 in the latter. It will be now shown 

 that when smaller and better known areas are compared the 

 superiority of the tropics is more clearly apparent. 



