80 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 
themselves in each locahty, as an object of primary import- 
ance to the elucidation of Bot. Geog. and the effects 
of cHmate upon the Vegetable Kingdom. Several of the 
tabular results I have drawn out show a dehghtful accord- 
ance, nor do I know of any result of this Expedition which 
gave me such pleasure as to find how beautifully the 
grasses rose in the scale of importance, beating even Brown's 
pubhshed ideas, and yet they are not the only plants by 
whose abundance or want the botanical nature of a country 
may be judged of. As we go South, Fungi disappear, 
Lichens increase, Pleurocarpi ^ diminish, in proportion to 
Acrocarpi,! as do the proportion of Pleurocarpi which fruit 
to the barren ones. Cyperaceae decreases, and Dicotyledons 
bear a smaller proportion to Monocotyledons. Nothing so 
satisfies me, that I have observed carefully in any Island, 
as to find these laws to hold good in the collections made 
long ago and when it is too late to remedy any defects, 
to look for more grasses or to w^onder if I have not made 
too many species of my Cyperaceae etc. 
And to Dr. Boott ^ four days later he enlarges on the pro- 
portion of the Eush tribe to the Grasses occurring in this region. 
The descending scale for the Southern regions is beautiful 
and in perfect accordance with what was to be expected 
from the climate and position of the several islands. 
Australia, 0*7 :1. 
Campbell's Island, 1 : 5. 
New Zealand, 1:1. 
Auckland Island, 1:1-9. 
Falklands, 1 : 2*5, and 
Kerguelen's Land, : 5. 
1 Two divisions of the iNIosscs. 
2 Francis Boott, M.D. (1792-1863). Born in Boston of British parents 
and maintaining friendships in both countries, he took up the study of medicine 
in 1820 (M.D. Edin.) and practised successfully in London 1825-32, with ideas 
on fresh air in advance of his times. Another innovation was to discard the 
traditional black coat and knee breeches of the physician for the ordinary dress 
of the day — blue coat with brass buttons and yellow waistcoat. But with 
characteristic fidelity he changed no more with the fashion, and his endeavour 
to avoid singularity in 1830 ended by making him more singular than ever 
in 1860. Inheriting a competency, he devoted himself to botany, specialising 
on the genus Carex, his Illustrations of which appeared 1858-67. He con- 
tributed a monograph of 158 species to Sir W. J. Hooker's Flora Boreali- 
Americana ; his collection he bequeathed to Kew. He became a member of 
the Linnoan Society in 1819 ; secretary 1832-9, and treasurer 1856-61. 
