412 GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 



region of floating icebergs, between 5 5 and 65 S. lat.> 

 seldom a day occurred during the summer in which the 

 temperature rose or sunk beyond the limits of c. and 

 6'6 c. South winds, with much snow, alternate 

 there with aerial currents from the north, which being 

 loaded with aqueous vapour, incessantly diffuse white 

 fogs of indescribable density over the surface of the ocean. 

 These precipitations are also formed on islands situated 

 in the vicinity of this region, throughout the year, by the 

 admixture of the winds from the land and sea depriving 

 them of their solar climate, and for the most part pre- 

 venting the change of temperature dependent upon the 

 position of the sun. A climate so inhospitable and 

 uniform excludes any variety in the forms of plants, but 

 confers a luxuriance of growth upon the indigenous 

 plants, of which the arctic regions must necessarily be 

 deprived, because their vegetation is subjected to a pro- 

 longed winter-sleep. This is so remarkably the case, 

 that notwithstanding the differences in the climatic con- 

 ditions, most of the genera and forms of the antarctic 

 agree with those of the arctic flora in the most important 

 points, excluding only the Auckland Islands, which ap- 

 pear to belong to the same primitiveformation with New 

 Zealand. But notwithstanding this similarity of the 

 types, the species of the southern district are peculiar ; 

 which could not have been expected to be otherwise in 

 the case of islands, not only separated climatally to such 

 an extent, but are also situated beyond the reach of all 

 continents, the oceanic currents of which usually plant 

 the waste shores. Many antarctic species indicate their 

 endemic origin by the limited district through which they 

 are distributed in the region itself. However, the special 

 botanical results of Hooker's voyage, the description of 

 which far excels his former communications in fulness 

 and arrangement of the matter, are reserved for the next 

 Annual Report. The Cryptogamia have also been partly 

 described in the ' London Journal of Botany' for 1 844, 

 including 72 Hepaticae from the Auckland Islands, by 



