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398 PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY, ETC. 
den; and at the very summit the common Alpine 
plants, which we again meet near the North Pole, 
Similar observations have been made by Taos 
wijh regard to Mount Caucasus. 
Swartz discovered no European alpine plants in 
the mountains of Jamaica, but a good number of 
our mosses, for instance, Funaria hygrometrica; Bry- 
um serpillifelium, caespititium; Sphagnum palustre ; 
Dicranum g/oucum, and many more., We know, that 
the seeds of mosses are so minute, that a single seed 
escapes our view, and can only be observed with 3 
considerably magnifying microscope. Should they 
not, as it is certain that they are suspended in the 
atmosphere, have been driven there by storms, and 
as the climate was suitable,. have germinated ? At 
‘Yeast this seems to be the only way of explaining 
this singular phenomenon. 
But when Messrs. Forster met in the Tierra del 
Fuego, with Pinguicula alpina ; Galium aparine ; 
Statice armeria, and Ranunculus /apponicus ; 1t would 
certainly be very dificult to say, how those plants 
came to such a remote quarter of the lobe. Per- 
haps the great likeness between the European and 
Southern plants misled these great philosophers, 
though there might be Jisiinaulvhing marks, which, 
however, .the two gentlemen, firmly believing then 
to be our European species, did not attend to. 
When Linné and. other botanists speak of varieties 
of a plant in different zones, we cannot always trust 
them; for I myself have very often seen, that such 
accidental varieties possessed even more fixed distin- 
guishing characters, than several species differing 
from 
