H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror. 525 



present; the red species are nearly confined to the Andes 

 of South America and New Zealand. Amongst Dr. Jamie- 

 son's * Botanical notes on the Flora of the Andes of Peru 

 and Colombia/ I find the following interesting remark : — 

 1 Of sixteen species of Gentian with which I am acquainted, 

 one-half are red, four purple, one yellow, and one white.' 

 (Bot. Journal, vol. 2, p. 649.) Their inferior limit under the 

 line we find from the same source to be 7852 feet, and they 

 ascend from thence nearly to the limits of perpetual snow 

 on Cotopaxi ; they do not in South America descend to the 

 level of the sea in a lower latitude than 54° or thereabouts, 

 where, however, there are no Alpine species, though the 

 snowline does not descend below 4000-3500 feet. On the 

 Himalaya, where the species are all blue flowered, one spe- 

 cies has been gathered by my friend, Mr. Edgeworth, near 

 Ratha Kona, on the Mana Pass, at an elevation of 16,000 feet, 

 near the limit of perpetual snow, and another reaches in 

 latitude 31° W. the altitude of 12,689 feet, according to Dr. 

 Royle. In Ceylon a species has been gathered at between 

 6000 and 8000 feet of elevation. One species G, prostra- 

 ta t H. B. K., has a most extraordinary range, both in lon- 

 gitude and latitude. In Southern Europe it inhabits the 

 Corinthian Alps, between 6000 and 9000 feet high. In Asia 

 it has been found on the Altai mountains about latitude 52° 

 W. where they attain an elevation of 15,000-16,000 feet; 

 and on the east side of the Andes of South America in 35° 

 South : it descends to the level of the sea at Cape Negro ; 

 in the Straits of Magalhaens in latitude 53° S. ; and at Cape 

 Good Hope in Behring's Straits, latitude 68|° N. 



" The fact of the occurrence, and the great number, of 

 species of Gentiana inhabiting only the more elevated regions 

 of the temperate and tropical zones, and there reaching 

 the snow limit, renders it very remarkable that they should 

 be so proportionally scarce in the higher latitudes both of 

 the northern and southern hemispheres. Generally speak- 



