520 Botany of the Antarctic voyage of 



none in the department which he has followed. Owing to the 

 public being allowed the full benefit of the Admiralty grant, 

 the work is sold remarkably cheap — certainly a third or 

 fourth cheaper than it could otherwise have been offered. 

 Although the Botany of the Antarctic regions has but little 

 direct bearing on that of India, yet, by the manner in which 

 the author has treated his subject, there is much in the pre- 

 sent work that will render it not only interesting, but useful 

 to the Botanists of any country, but particularly to those who 

 study the science with reference to the Geographical distri- 

 bution of plants. In a very interesting summary of the voy- 

 age, which serves as an introduction to the work, we find 

 the following account of the climate of the remote regions 

 which the expedition visited : 



" Respecting the climate of the various regions visited by 

 the expedition, and especially that which prevails within the 

 Antarctic circle, little need here be said, except that the 

 vast proportion which water bears to land, tends to render 

 the temperature uniform throughout the year, and the further 

 south is the position, the more equable does the climate 

 seem to be. No analogy can prove more incorrect than 

 that which compares the similar degrees of latitude in the 

 North with those of the South. The most casual inspec- 

 tion of the map, suffices to show the immense proportion 

 of sea to land in the Southern Hemisphere, the mass of 

 the continents terminating to the north of latitude 40° S., 

 America alone dwindling away to the fifty-sixth degree. The 

 scattered islands discovered to the south of this, are there- 

 fore removed from the influence of any tracts which enjoy a 

 better or continental climate. The power of the sun is 

 seldom felt, and unless in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of land, and accompanied by a comparatively dry land wind, 

 that luminary only draws up such mists and fogs as intercept 

 its rays. After entering the pack-ice between 55° and 65°, 

 the thermometer seldom, during any part of the summer day, 



