BOOK V. 
GEOGRAPHY. 
49§ 
" DICOTYLEDONES. 
" CoMPOSiTiE. Not distinguishing plants of the plains from 
those of the mountains, we found them in equinoctial America 
i and \ ; but of 534 compositae of our herbaria, only 94 were 
found between the plains and 3000 feet of elevation ; a height 
at which the mean temperature is 71° 3', equalling that of 
Cairo, Algiers, and Madeira. From the plains to 6000 feet, 
where the mean temperature is that of Naples, we found 265 
compositae. Therefore the proportion of compositae in the 
regions of equinoctial America, below 6000 feet, is from ^ to 
j^jj. This result is very remarkable, inasmuch as it proves 
that, within the tropics in the low and hot region of the new 
continent, there are fewer compositae ; and in the subalpine 
and temperate regions, more than under the same conditions 
in the old world. Brown finds for the Congo River and Sierra 
Leone 2^}, for India and New Holland yV* Ii^ the temperate 
zone compositae are, in America, ^ ; and this is probably the 
proportion borne by compositae on the very high stations of 
equinoctial America, to the whole mass of phaenogamous 
plants in the same places ; at the Cape of Good Hope 3^, in 
France -y, or more properly, ^-y, in Germany ^ [in Sweden 
between and -^j, in Sicily rather less than ^']. In the 
froze?! zone compositae are, in Lapland yV ? in Kamtschatka xj? 
[in Melville Island ^V]- 
" Leguminos^. — Trop, America -rV, India New Hol- 
land i, western Africa | ; Temp, France Germany 
North America Siberia y^^, [Sweden ^V? Sicily |]; 
Frozm [Melville Island J-^]- 
"Labiate. — Trop, Temp, ^ovxh. America Ger- 
many France [Sicily Sweden -^-] ; Frozen -J^, 
[Melville Island 0]. The scarcity of Labiatas and Cruci- 
ferae, in the temperate zone of the new continent, is a very 
remarkable phenomenon. 
" Malvace^. — Trop, America tr? India and western Africa 
-jrV, the coast of Guinea alone ; Temp. ^-^^ ; Frozen 0. 
" Cruci fer^. — Trop, Scarcely any, except in mountainous 
regions beyond from 7,000 to 10,000 ft. of elevation; France 
tVj Germany [Sweden tV? Sicily iV> Balearic Islands 
K K 2 
