Neiv species of Anemia. 9 



examined and compared will no doubt be reduced ; while on 

 the other hand, several new ones have since then been dis- 

 covered ; those found by myself during my travels in South 

 America, amounting to upwards of half a dozen. All these 

 are American, and until about the year 1835, the genus was 

 not known to exist out of that continent. Somewhere about 

 that period Dregi found one in the interior of South Africa, 

 {A. Dregeana, Kunze, figured in Hooker's " Icones Plan- 

 tarum," at tab. 236), and besides the one now about to be 

 described from the Neelgherry range, a third seems to have 

 been found in the Old World, as I learn from my friend Mr. 

 Heward of London, who in a letter lately received, says : 

 " Your finding an Anemia in India, is highly interesting. It 

 is curious, that a genus for so many years supposed to belong 

 to the New World, should all at once be found at the Cape 

 of Good Hope (A. Dregeana;) in Abyssinia by Schimper (a 

 species so nearly allied to A. flexuosa, that I can see no differ- 

 ence ;) and by Dr. Wight and yourself in India/ 5 



It is true that those lower tribes of plants to which the 

 name of Cryptoyamia is given, are well known to possess a 

 much wider range, both as regards generic and specific forms, 

 than those which are of a more complex organization, but, 

 even among the latter, some remarkable examples occur of 

 individuals of the same genus, and even identical species, 

 being found in very distant countries, without including those 

 whose habits are littoral. To ascertain the cause why such 

 nearly allied forms are found in such different parts of the 

 world, is a problem of very difficult solution ; but so many 

 important facts bearing on this subject, have been established 

 of late years, that we may hope the time will arrive, when, from 

 the united labours of the many enlightened and enthusiastic 

 students of nature who are now in the field in all parts of the 

 world, the science of the Geographical distribution of plants 

 and animals will make a nearer approach to an exact science, 

 than it does at present. Hitherto, temperature, moisture, soil, 

 and elevation, have been considered as the most important 



