184 PHYSIOGNOMY 01" PLANTS. 



gically in the different parts of the world. In the northern 

 hemisphere, in the valley of the Mississipi, the traveller is 

 gratified, long before reaching the tropics, with the sight of 

 a form of bamboo, the Arundinaria macrosperma, formerly 

 called also Miegia, and Ludolfia. In the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere Gay has discovered a Bambusacea, (a still undescribed 

 species of Chusquea, 21 English feet high, which does not 

 climb, but is arborescent and self-supporting) growing in 

 southern Chili between the parallels of 37 and 42 S. lati- 

 tude ; where, intermixed with Drymis chilensis, a uniform 

 forest covering of Fagus obliqua prevails. 



While in India the Bambusa flowers so abundantly that 

 in Mysore and Orissa the seeds are mixed with honey and 

 eaten like rice, (Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, Vol. 

 ii. p. 341, and Stirling in the Asiat Res. Yol. xv. p. 205) 

 in South America the Guadua flowers so rarely, that in 

 four years we were only twice able to procure blossoms ; 

 once on the unfrequented banks of the Cassiquiare, (the arm 

 which connects the Orinoco with the Bio Negro and the 

 Amazons Eiver,) and once in the province of Popayan 

 between Buga and Quilichao. It is striking to see plants 

 in particular localities grow with the greatest vigour without 

 producing flowers : it is thus with European olive trees 

 which have been planted for centuries between the tropics 

 near Quito, 9000 (about 9590 English) feet above the 

 level of the sea, and also in the Isle of France with 

 Walnut-trees, Hazel-nuts, and, as at Quito, olive trees 

 (Olea europea) : see Bojer, Hortus Mauritianus, 1837, 

 p. 291. 



