ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 123 



and of Fuegia is much more meagre not only than that of 

 similarly clothed regions of Europe, but of islands many 

 degrees nearer to the Northern pole than these are to the 

 Southern one. Iceland, for instance, which is from 8 to 1 

 degrees farther from the equator than the Auckland and 

 the Campbell Islands, contains certainly five times as many 

 flowering plants. In the Antarctic Flora, under the in- 

 fluence of a cool and moist, but singularly equable climate, 

 great uniformity, arising from paucity of species, is asso- 

 ciated with great luxuriance of vegetation. This striking 

 uniformity prevails both at different levels, (the species found 

 on the plains appearing also on the slopes of the moun- 

 tains), and over vast extents of country, from the south of 

 Chili to Patagonia, and even to Tierra del Fuego, or from 

 lat. 45 to 56. Compare, on the other hand, in the nor- 

 thern temperate region, the Flora of the South of France, 

 in the latitude of the Chonos Archipelago on the coast of 

 Chili, with the Flora of Argyleshire in Scotland in the 

 latitude of Cape Horn, and how great a difference of species 

 is found ; while in the Southern Hemisphere the same types 

 of vegetation pass through many degrees of latitude. 

 Lastly, on Walden Island, in lat. 80-J N., or not ten 

 degrees from the North Pole of the earth, ten species of 

 flowering plants have been collected, while in the southern- 

 most islet of the South Shetlands, though only in lat. 

 63 S., only a solitary grass was found." These considera- 

 tions on the distribution of plants confirm the belief that 

 the great mass of still unobserved, uncollected, and unde- 

 scribed flowering plants must be sought 'for in tropical 



