162 PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 



The Islands of Japan, notwithstanding the vicinity of the 

 Continent of Asia, have a very distinct character of vege- 

 tation. Thunberg's supposed Japanese "Weymouth Pine, 

 (Pinus Strobus) which would offer an important phenomenon, 

 is only a planted tree, and is besides quite distinct from the 

 American- species of Pine. It is Pinus korajensis (Sieb.), 

 and has been brought to Nipon from the peninsula of Corea, 

 and from Kamtschatka. 



Of the 114 species of the Genus Pinus with which we 

 are at present acquainted, not one belongs to the Southern 

 Hemisphere, for the Pinus merkusii described by Junghuhn 

 and De Yriese belongs to the part of the Island of Sumatra 

 wliich is north of the Equator, to the district of the Battas ; 

 and Pinus insularis (Endl.) although it was at first given 

 in London's Arboretum as P. timoriensis, really belongs to 

 the Philippines. Besides the Genus Pinus, the Southern 

 hemisphere, according to the present state of our now 

 happily advancing knowledge of the geography of plants, is 

 entirely without species of Cupressus, Salisburia (Gingko), 

 Cunninghamia (Pinus lanceolota, Lamb.) Thuja, (one of 

 the species of which, Th. gigantea, "Nutt., found on the 

 banks of the Columbia, has a height of above 180 Eng. feet), 

 Juniperus, and Taxodium (MirbeFs Schubertia). I include 

 the last-named genus with the less hesitation, as a Cape of 

 Good Hope plant (Sprengel's Schubertia capensis) is no 

 Taxodium, but constitutes a genus of itself, Widringtonia, 

 (Endl.) in quite a different division of the family of Coniferse. 



This absence, from the Southern Hemisphere, of true Abie- 

 tinese, Juniperinese, Cupressinese, and all the Taxodinese, as 



