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Show 354 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. Mount Erebus, 12,400 English feet high (lat. 76° 7' South), Hooker found not a single trace of vegetable life. It is quite different in respect to the extension even of the forms of higher vegetable organization in the high northern latitudes. Phrenogamous plants there approach 18!0 nearer to the Pole than in the Southern Hemisphere: Walden Island (N. lat. 80!0 ) has still ten species. The antarctic phrenogamous vegetation is also poorer in species at corresponding distances from the Pole (Iceland has five times as many flowering plants as the southern group of Auckland and Campbell Islands); but this less varied antarctic vegetation is, from climatic reasons, more luxuriant and succulent. (Compare Hooker, Flora antarctica, p. vii. 74, and 215, with Sir James Ross, Voyage in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, 1839-1843, vol. ii. p. 335-342.) (28 ) p. 244.-u Ferns." If, with a naturalist deeply versed in the knowledge of the Agamre, Dr. Klotzsch, we estimate the whole number of cryptogamic species hitherto described at 19,000, this gives to Fungi 8000 (of which the Agarici constitute 1-8th); Lichens, according to J. von Flotow of Hirschberg, and Hampe of Blankenburg, at least 1400; Algre 2580; Mosses and Liver-worts, according to Carl Muller of Halle, and Dr. Gottsche of Ham burgh, 3800; and Ferns 3250. We are indebted for this last important result to the thorough investigation of all that is known concerning this group of plants by Professor Kunze of Leipsic. It is remarkable that, of the entire number of described Filices, the family of Polypodiacere, alone, comprises 2165 species; while other forms, even Lycopodiacere and Hymenophyllacere, only count 350 and 200. There are, therefore, almost as many described ferns as described grasses. It is remarkable that, in the ancient classic writers, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, no notice occurs of the beautiful form of arborescent ferns; while, from information derived from the companions of Alexander, Aristobulus, Megasthenes, and Nearchus, mention is made of Bamboos 11 qure fissis internodiis lemhi vice vectitabant navigantes ;" of the Indian trees u quarum folia non minora clypeo sunt ;" of the fig-tree of which the branches take root round the parent stem; and of Palms u tantre proceritatis, ut |