176 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Geographical Distribution.^ — The Umbellifers of the series 

 DauceWf Peiicedanece, and Gar em, are generally plants of the temperate 

 regions of the northern hemisphere both old and new world. The 

 HydrocotijlecB, met with in all warm and temperate countries, are 

 more especially plants of Oceania and Andean America, particularly 

 southern. The Echinophorece are principally Levantine. The Araliece 

 belong to almost all tropical regions of both worlds. Europe pos- 

 sesses 46 genera, including the Ivy. The Levant flora, according to 

 BoissiER,^ numbers 630 species. To tropical and sub-tropical Africa 

 belong most of the true Umbillifers with erect and woody stems, 

 resembling those of the Araliece, Thus the Tornahenias of the 

 sections Monizia and Melanoselinum are from Madeira;^ the ancient 

 Biibon Galbanum from the Cape ; Heteromorpha from eastern tropical 

 and southern Africa. To the Cape and neighbouring regions belong 

 Hernias, Rhyticarjnis, Lichtensteinia, Anesorhiza, Polemannia, Pappea, 

 and Arctopus, Aciphylla is chiefly from New Zealand, especially the 

 most curious forms. The others are from Australia, the exclusive 

 home of Siehera, Actinotus and Xanthosia, Astrotriche and MacMnlaya. 

 Apiopetalum, Pseudosciadium, Mijodocarpus, Delarhrea, and Eremopanax 

 grow only in New Caledonia. All the Plerandras except Tupidanthus,^ 

 Araliece with pleiostemonous androecium, are Oceanic plants, as are 

 also Horsfieldia and Meryta, Pliellopterus has been found only on 

 the southern shores of China and Japan ; Klotzschia, only in Brazil ; 

 Tauschia, Spananthe, and Arracacia in the Andean region ; Laretia 

 in Chili ; Musenium, Erigenia, and Apiastrum in North America ; 

 Petagnia in Sicily. The types limited to the Levant are numerous, 

 the principal being Exoacatitha, Szovitzia, Vicatia, Oliveria, Pihahdos- 

 ciadium, Thecocarpus, Polyzygus, Zozimia, Artedia, Psammogeton, and 

 Pyramidoptera, Of the 113 genera retained by us, only twelve belong 

 exclusively to America. Adanson remarked that the plants of this 

 family shunned the torrid zone ; the only exceptions are some Araliece, 

 The country in which they are least common is Nigritia, where they 

 represent only -^^ of the vegetation, and those where they are 

 relatively most abundant are : the Falkland islands, Algeria, Germany, 



1 Endl. Enchirid. 381.— Lindl. Veg, Kingd, 2 jp^i Qr. ii. 820-1091 (1872). 



775._Lecoq. Geogr. Bot. vi. 255.— A. DC. '^luO^y^, Man. Fl. Mader. ZQo. 



GSogr. Bot. Rais. 602-511, 569, 663-666, pass. ■* From the East Indies. 



