Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/341

equal; whilst we know that certain well-explored districts in
Europe have more than three times as many insects as phænogamous
plants 113-119

Considerations on the probable proportion which the number of known
phænogamous plants bears to the entire number existing on the
surface of the globe 119-125

The different forms of plants successively noticed. Physiognomy of
plants treated in a threefold manner; viz. as to the absolute diversity
of forms, their local predominance in comparison with the
entire number of species in different phænogamous Floras, and
their geographical climatic distribution 126-200

Greatest extension in height or of the longitudinal axis in arborescent
vegetation: examples of 235 to 245 English feet in Pinus lambertiana
and P. douglasii; of 266 English feet in P. strobus; of 298 and
300 English feet in Sequoia gigantea and Pinus trigona. All these
examples are from the north-west part of the New Continent.
Araucaria excelsa of Norfolk Island only attains, according to
well-assured measurements, 203 to 223 English feet; and the
Mountain Palm of the Cordilleras, Ceroxylon andicola, 192 English
feet 165-168

These gigantic vegetable forms contrasted with the stem of two
inches high of a willow-tree stunted by cold of latitude or of mountain
elevation; and still more remarkably with a phænogamous
plant, Tristicha hypnoides, which, when fully developed in the plains
of a tropical country, is only a quarter of an English inch in
height 169

Bursting forth of blossoms from the rough bark of the Crescentia
cujete, the Gustavia augusta, and the roots of the Cacao tree.
The largest flowers, Rafflesia arnoldi, Aristolochia cordata, Mag-*