Chap. xii. in the North and South. 337 



the illustrious Humboldt long ago found species belonging to genera 

 characteristic of the Cordillera. 



In Africa, several forms characteristic of Europe and some few 

 representatives of the flora of the Cape of Good Hope occur on the 

 mountains of Abyssinia. At the Cape of Good Hope a very few 

 European species, believed not to have been introduced by man, 

 and on the mountains several representative European forms are 

 found, which have not been discovered in the intertropical parts of 

 Africa, Dr. Hooker has also lately shown that several of the plants 

 living on the upper parts of the lofty island of Fernando Po and on 

 the neighbouring Cameroon mountains, in the Gulf of Guinea, are 

 closely related to those on the mountains of Abyssinia, and likewise 

 to those of temperate Europe. It now also appears, as I hear from 

 Dr. Hooker, that some of these same temperate plants have been 

 discovered by the Kev. K. T. Lowe on the mountains of the Cape de 

 Verde islands. This extension of the same temperate forms, almost 

 under the equator, across the whole continent of Africa and to the 

 mountains of the Cape de Verde archipelago, is one of the most 

 astonishing facts ever recorded in the distribution of plants. 



On the Himalaya, and on the isolated mountain-ranges of the 

 peninsula of India, on the heights of Ceylon, and on the volcanic 

 cones of Java, many plants occur, either identically the same or 

 representing each other, and at the same time representing plants 

 of Europe, not found in the intervening hot lowlands. A list of 

 the genera of plants collected on the loftier peaks of Java, raises 

 a picture of a collection made on a hillock in Europe! Still more 

 .striking is the fact that peculiar Australian forms are represented 

 by certain plants growing on the summits of the mountains of 

 Borneo. Some of these Australian forms, as I hear from Dr. Hooker, 

 extend along the heights of the peninsula of Malacca, and are 

 thinly scattered on the "one hand over India, and on the other hand 

 as far north as Japan. 



On the southern mountains of Australia, Dr. F. Miiller has 

 discovered several European species ; other species, not introduced 

 by man, occur on the lowlands ; and a long list can be given, as I 

 am informed by Dr. Hooker, of European genera, found in Australia, 

 but not in the intermediate torrid regions. In the admirable 

 1 Introduction to the Flora of New Zealand,' by Dr. Hooker, analo- 

 gous and striking facts are given in regard to the plants of that 

 large island. Hence we see that certain plants growing on the more 

 lofty mountains of the tropics in all parts of the world, and on the 

 temperate plains of the north and south, are either the same species 

 or varieties of the same species. It should, however, be observed 



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