ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 127 



Amarasinha gave the characteristic appellation of " Kings 

 among the Grasses 17 ), up to the time of the death of 

 Linnaeus only 15 species were described. The Peruvian 

 travellers Ruiz and Pavon added to these 8 more species. 

 Bonpland and I, in passing over a more extensive range of 

 country from 12 S. lat. to 21 N. lat., described 20 new 

 species of palms, and distinguished as many more, but 

 without .being able to obtain complete specimens of their 

 flowers. (Huinboldt de distrib. geogr. Plantarum, p. 225 

 233.) At the present time, 44 years after my return from 

 Mexico, there are from the Old and New World, including 

 the East Indian species brought by Griffith, above 440 regu- 

 larly described species. The Enumeratio Plantarum of my 

 friend Kunth, published in 1841, had already 356 species. 



A few, but only a few species of palms, are, like our 

 Coniferse, Quercinese, and Betulinese, social plants : such 

 are the Mauritia flexuosa, and two species of Chamasrops, 

 one of which, the Chamasrops humilis, occupies extensive 

 tracts of ground near the Mouth of the Ebro and in 

 Valencia ; and the other, C. mocini, discovered by us on 

 the Mexican shore of the Pacific and entirely without 

 prickles, is also a social plant. While some kinds of palms, 

 including Chsemerops and Cocos, are littoral or shore-loving 

 trees, there is in the tropics a peculiar group of mountain 

 palms, which if I am not mistaken was entirely unknown 

 previous to my South American travels. Almost all species 

 of the family of palms grow on the plains or low grounds 

 in a mean temperature of between 'x*2 and 24 Beaumur 



