A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton.

  • John Barton
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    83/120 (page 71)
    plants are sent over in them to this country. The stems of Bamboo are also employed in building, in constructing furniture, and for more purposes than can be easily named. The seed forms an article of food in some parts of India*. This plant is found in South America, but more sparingly than in the Old World. The Ferns are distinguished by producing their fructification on the back of the leaf,—- generally in the form of brown spots or stripes.— instead of bearing flowers like other plants. We have in England about forty species, none of which exceed three or four feet in height; whereas, in the torrid zone, they attain to the size of trees. Of all the forms of tropical vege- tation, these and the Bamboos, according to Humboldt, most excite the attention and awaken the admiration of the traveller -f*. In their gene- ral aspect the Tree Ferns considerably resemble the Palms. Their stems are generally black, as if burnt by the heat of the sun ; their leaves of a bright and delicate green, beautifully crisped at the edge if. It has been observed of the Ferns, that they principally delight in * Buchanan’s Journey through Mysore, Camara, and Malabar, vol. ii. p. 341. t Personal Narrative, vol. iii. p. 39. £ Humboldt: Geographic der Pflanzen, p. 26,