144 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



flowers had a slender trunk, forty or fifty feet 

 high, and from twelve to eighteen inches in 

 diameter ; at the top of this began the great 

 tuft of leaves, five and six feet long, from the 

 centre of which rose a spike of numerous white 

 flowers ; this spike of flowers was from thirty 

 to forty feet long, and had on it probably 

 twenty thousand blossoms. It was, therefore, 

 from eighty to ninety feet in total height, and 

 is supposed to be three hundred or four hun- 

 dred years old. 



But, if the gigantic furcrsea is so imposing in 

 size, the yuccas are no less attractive for their 

 beautiful flowers, of which we cannot have a 

 better idea than by imagining a tree of somewhat 

 similar figure to the giant just described, but of 

 far lower stature, and with a magnificent spike 

 of tulip-like flowers, of the most vivid hues. 

 The South American flora in this zone differs 

 most remarkably from that of South Africa 

 or Australia, though in the same latitudes. 

 Seventy-six species of the beautiful Calceolaria, 

 so many of which adorn our green-houses, and 

 many species of oxalis. or wood sorrel, and 

 mimosa, inhabit Brazil, Chili, etc. Mimosa pu- 

 dica, a native of Brazil, is the celebrated sensi- 

 tive plant, the leaves closing and falling on the 

 slightest touch. Most of the mimosas, of which 

 there are seventy-three species, possess the same 

 property. Myrtles, fuchsias, which are covered 

 with their lovely flowers all the year round, grow 

 everywhere. Not one species of rose has been 

 found in South America. But the most interesting 



