POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 



their tropical kindred of a larger growth. In the swamps 

 on the borders of the Mississippi there grows a kind of Vine 

 (Vttis riparia), which on account of the disagreeable fla- 

 vour of its fruit has been named the Fox-grape ; and dif- 

 ferent species of Bramble are found there in numbers. At 

 the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi the banks are 

 covered with magnificent pyramidal Poplars (Popuhts fol- 

 toides) and Willows (Salix nigra) . If we bend our steps 

 southwards, we meet, as we approach New Orleans, with 

 "impenetrable forests" of those Grasses allied to Bamboo, 

 growing on the banks of the river, which here well deserve 

 their title of " arborescent," reaching, as they do, from 

 thirty-six to forty-two feet in height. 



This is but a few out of a long list of plants which might 

 be named ; but as there is much to be seen in the other 

 hemisphere, we must now steer straight from New Orleans 

 for the Canary Islands. Both here, as throughout the 

 western Old World portion of this zone, we find the Date 

 Palm. It seems indeed to be almost limited to the Sub- 

 tropical Zone, " being equally intolerant of the heavy rains 

 of the tropics as of the rigour of more northern regions," 

 and in many parts the inhabitants of this zone depend on it 

 for a large proportion of their daily food. But one of the 



