Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/135

 *[Footnote: Amarasinha gave the characteristic appellation of "Kings among the Grasses"),—up to the time of the death of Linnæus only 15 species were described. The Peruvian travellers Ruiz and Pavon added to these 8 more species. Bonpland and I, in passing over a more extensive range of country from 12° S. lat. to 21° N. lat., described 20 new species of palms, and distinguished as many more, but without being able to obtain complete specimens of their flowers. (Humboldt de distrib. geogr. Plantarum, p. 225-233.) At the present time, 44 years after my return from Mexico, there are from the Old and New World, including the East Indian species brought by Griffith, above 440 regularly described species. The Enumeratio Plantarum of my friend Kunth, published in 1841, had already 356 species.

A few, but only a few species of palms, are, like our Coniferæ, Quercineæ, and Betulineæ, social plants: such are the Mauritia flexuosa, and two species of Chamærops, one of which, the Chamærops humilis, occupies extensive tracts of ground near the Mouth of the Ebro and in Valencia; and the other, C. mocini, discovered by us on the Mexican shore of the Pacific and entirely without prickles, is also a social plant. While some kinds of palms, including Chæmerops and Cocos, are littoral or shore-loving trees, there is in the tropics a peculiar group of mountain palms, which if I am not mistaken was entirely unknown previous to my South American travels. Almost all species of the family of palms grow on the plains or low grounds in a mean temperature of between 22° and 24° Reaumur]*