Volume 2 — GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

Physiognomy of Plants—p. 1 to p. 31.

Universal profuse distribution of organic life on the declivities of the highest mountains, on the ocean, and in the atmosphere. Subterranean Flora. Siliceous-shelled Polygastrica in masses of polar ice. Podurellæ in tubular holes in the glaciers of the Alps; the glacier flea (Desoria glacialis). Small organic creatures in the dust which falls like rain in the neighbourhood of the African Desert 3-8

History of the vegetable covering of the surface of the globe. Gradual extension of vegetation over the bare rocky crust. Lichens, mosses, and succulent plants. Causes of the present absence of vegetation in particular districts 8-13

Each zone has its peculiar character. All animal and vegetable forms attached to fixed and always recurring types. Physiognomy of Nature. Analysis of the general impression produced by the aspect of a country or district. The several elements which make up this impression; outlines of the mountains, azure of the sky, and form of the clouds: but principally determined by the vegetable covering. Animal organisation far less influential on the landscape from deficiency of mass. The power of locomotion of individuals, and frequently their small size, also contribute to lessen their general effect on the landscape 13-16

Enumeration of the forms of plants which principally determine the physiognomy of Nature, and which decrease or increase from the equator to the poles according to laws which have been made the subject of investigation 17-20

Palms 20, 21, 126-140

Plantains or Bananas 21, 22, 140, 141

Malvaceæ 22, 141-143

Mimosæ 22, 23, 143-145

Ericeæ, or Heath form 23, 24, 145-147

Cactus form 24, 147-151

Orchideæ 24, 25, 151, 152

Casuarineæ 25, 152, 153

Needle trees 25, 153-175

Pothos and Aroideæ 26, 175-178

Lianes, or twining rope plants 26, 178-180

Aloë form 27, 180-183

Gramineæ 27, 28, 183-187

Ferns 28, 188-193

Liliaceæ 28, 193

Willow form 28, 193-196

Myrtaceæ 28, 196-200

Melastomaceæ 28, 200

Laurel form 28, 200

Enjoyment derived from the sight of the natural grouping and contrasts of these forms of plants. Importance of the physiognomic study of plants to the landscape painter 29-31, 200-203

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 33 to p. 210.

Organic forms, animal and vegetable, in the highest mountain regions adjacent to the limit of perpetual snow in the Andes and the Alps; insects carried up involuntarily by ascending currents of air. The Hypudæus nivalis of the Swiss Alps. On the true elevation above the sea reached by the Chinchilla laniger in Chili 33-35

Lecidias and Parmelias on rocks not entirely covered with snow; some phænogamous plants also wander in the Cordilleras beyond the limits of perpetual snow, as the Saxifraga boussingaulti, to 15770 English feet above the level of the sea. Groups of phænogamous plants extend in the Andes to 13700 and 14920 English feet above the sea; species of Culcitium, Espeletia, and Ranunculus; small umbelliferous plants resembling mosses in appearance; Myrrhis andicola and Fragosa arctioides 35, 36

Measurement of the height of Chimborazo, and etymology of the name 36-39

On the greatest absolute heights which have yet been reached by any human beings in either continent; in the Cordilleras and the Himalaya, on the Chimborazo and the Tarhigang 40

Habits and haunts of the Condor (Cuntur in the Inca language), and singular mode of capturing these powerful birds in an enclosure fenced by palisades 40-44

Useful services rendered by the Gallinazos (Cathartes urubu and C. aura) in purifying the air in the neighbourhood of human habitations; these birds sometimes tamed 44, 45

On what has been called the revivification of Rotiferæ; views of Ehrenberg and Doyère. According to Payen, germs of Cryptogamia preserve their power of germination even after being exposed to the highest temperatures 45-47

Diminution, if not entire suspension, of organic functions in the winter sleep of animals belonging to the higher classes 47, 48

Summer sleep of animals in the tropical zone; great dryness acts like winter cold. Tenrecs, crocodiles, tortoises, and the Lepidosiren of Eastern Africa 48-51

Anther dust or pollen; fertilization of flowers. The Cœlebogyne found to produce perfect seeds in England without any traces of pollen being discovered 51-53

The luminosity of the ocean produced by living luminous animals and by decaying fibres and membranes of animals. Acalephæ and siliceous-shelled luminous Infusoria. Influence on the luminosity of a stimulus applied to the nerves 53-60

Pentastomes inhabiting the pulmonary cells of the rattle-snake of Cumana 60, 61

Rock-building corals. The scaffolding or solid material which survives the death of the coral animals. More correct views of recent times. Shore reefs, encircling reefs, and lagoon islands. Atolls, or coral walls enclosing a lagoon. The coral islands to the south of Cuba, the Jardines del Rey of Columbus. The living gelatinous investment of the calcareous scaffolding of the coral trunks attracts fish and turtles in search of food. Singular mode of fishing by the aid of the Remora (the Echeneis naucrates) 62-72

Probable greatest depth of coral structures 72-75

Besides much carbonate of lime and magnesia, Madrepores and Astræas also contain some fluoric and phosphoric acids 75, 76

Oscillatory state of the bottom of the sea according to Darwin 76-79

Traditions of Samothrace. Irruptions of the sea. Mediterranean. Sluice theory of Strato. Myth of Lyktonia, and the “Atlantis broken into fragments” 78-83

On the causes which prevent the sinking down of clouds and precipitation taking place from them 83-84

Heat disengaged from the crust of the earth while solidifying. Hot currents of air which in the early ages of the earth, from frequent corrugations of the strata and elevations of land, may have been diffused in the atmosphere from temporary fissures 84, 85

Colossal size and great age of some kinds of trees; Dragon tree of Orotava thirteen, and Adansonia digitata (Baobab) thirty-two English feet in diameter. Characters cut in the bark of the trees in the 15th century. Adanson assigns to some of the Baobab trunks in Senegambia an age of between 5100 and 6000 years 86-92

Judging by the annular rings, there are yew-trees (Taxus baccata) from 2600 to 3000 years old. Is it true that in the northern temperate zone the part of the tree turned towards the north has narrower annular rings, as Michel Montaigne affirmed in 1581? Species of trees in which individuals attain a size of above twenty-one or twenty-two English feet diameter, and an age of several centuries, belong to the most different natural families 92-94

Diameter of the Mexican Schubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule 40½ English feet; the sacred Banyan fig-tree of Ceylon almost 30; and the oak at Saintes (Dep. de la Charente Inférieure) 29½ English feet. The age of the oak tree estimated from its annular rings at from 1800 to 2000 years. The root of the rose tree growing against the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim is 800 years old. A kind of sea-weed, Macrocystis pyrifera, attains a length of 630 English feet, exceeding therefore the height of the loftiest Coniferæ, even that of the Sequoia gigantea 94-97

Examination of the probable number of phænogamous plants hitherto described or preserved in herbariums. Relative numbers. Laws discovered in the geographical distribution of plants. Relative numbers of the great divisions of Cryptogamia to Cotyledonous plants, and of Monocotyledonous to Dicotyledonous plants, in the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones. Elements of arithmetical botany. Number of individuals; predominance of social plants. The forms of organic beings are mutually dependent on and limit each other. If we know exactly the number of species of one of the great families of Glumaceæ, Leguminosæ, or Compositæ, at any one part of the globe, we may infer approximatively both the number of species in the remaining families, and the entire number of phænogamous plants in the same district. Application of the numerical ratios to the direction of the isothermal lines. Mysterious original distribution of types. Absence of Roses in the southern, and of Calceolarias in the northern hemisphere. Why has our heather (Calluna vulgaris), and why have our oaks never advanced eastward beyond the Ural Mountains into Asia? The vegetation cycle of each species requires for its successful organic development a certain minimum amount of temperature. 97-113

Analogy between the numerical laws of the distribution of animal and of vegetable forms. If there are now cultivated in Europe above 35000 species of phænogamous plants, and if our herbariums probably contain, described and undescribed, from 160000 to 212000 species of phænogamous plants, it is probable that the number of collected insects and collected phænogamous plants are nearly 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, Magnolia, Helianthus annuus, Victoria regina, Euryale amazonica, &c. 203, 240

The different forms of plants determine the character of the landscape as dependent on vegetation in different zones. Physiognomic classification or division into groups according to external “facies” or aspect, entirely different in its principles from the classification according to the system of natural families. The study of the physiognomy of plants is based principally on what are called the vegetative organs, or those on which the preservation of the individual depends; systematic botany grounds the arrangement of natural families on a consideration of the reproductive organs, or those on which the preservation of the species depends 205-210

On the Structure and Mode of Action of Volcanos in the different Parts of the Earth—p. 211 to p. 241.

Influence of journeys in distant countries on the generalisation of ideas, and the progress of physical geology. Influence of the form of the Mediterranean on the earliest ideas respecting volcanic phenomena. Comparative geology of volcanos. Periodical recurrence of certain natural changes or revolutions which have their origin in the interior of the globe. Relative proportion of the height of volcanos to that of their cones of ashes in Pichincha, the Peak of Teneriffe, and Vesuvius. Changes in the height of the summit of volcanos. Measurements of the height of the margins of the crater of Vesuvius from 1773 to 1822: the author’s measurements comprise the period from 1805 to 1822 213-228

Particular description of the eruption in the night of 23-24 October, 1822. Falling in of a cone of cinders 426 English feet in height, which previously stood in the interior of the crater. The eruption of ashes from the 24th to the 28th of October is the most remarkable of which we possess any certain knowledge since the death of the elder Pliny 228-235

Difference between volcanos with permanent craters; and the phenomena (very rarely observed within historic times) in which trachytic mountains open suddenly, emit lava and ashes, and reclose again perhaps for ever. The latter class of phenomena are particularly instructive to the geologist, because they recall the earliest revolutions of the oscillating, upheaved, and fissured surface of the globe. They led, in classical antiquity, to the view of the Pyriphlegethon. Volcanos are intermitting earth springs, indicating a communication (permanent or transient) between the interior and the exterior of our planet; they are the result of a reaction of the still fluid interior against the crust of the earth; it is therefore needless to ask what chemical substance burns, or supplies materials for combustion, in volcanos 235-238

The primitive cause of subterranean heat is, as in all planets, the process of formation itself, i. e. the forming of the aggregating mass from a cosmical gaseous fluid. Power and influence of the radiation of heat from numerous open fissures and unfilled veins in the ancient world. Climate (or atmospheric temperature) at that period very independent of the geographical latitude, or of the position of the planet in respect to the central body, the sun. Organic forms of the present tropical world buried in the icy regions of the north 238-241

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 243 to p. 248.

Barometric measurements of Vesuvius. Comparison of the height of different points of the crater of Vesuvius 243-247

Increase of temperature with depth, 1° Reaumur for every 113 Parisian feet, or 1° of Fahrenheit for every 53·5 English feet. Temperature of the Artesian well at Oeynhausen’s Bad (New Salzwerk, near Minden), the greatest depth yet reached below the level of the sea. The hot springs near Carthage led Patricius, Bishop of Pertusa, in the 3rd century, to form just conjectures respecting the cause of the increase of temperature in the interior of the earth 248

The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius—p. 249 to p. 257.

Note to “The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius”—p. 259 to p. 263.

The Rhodian Genius, the development of a physiological idea in a mythical garb. Difference of views respecting the hypothesis of peculiar vital forces. 259, 260

The difficulty of satisfactorily reducing the vital phenomena of organisation to physical and chemical laws, is principally founded on the complication of the phenomena, and on the multiplicity of simultaneously acting forces, as well as the varying conditions of the activity of those forces. Definition of the expressions “animate” and “inanimate” substances. Criteria derived from the composition of the elements after a substance has been separated into parts by external agency are the simple enunciation of facts. 260-263

The Plateau of Caxamarca, the ancient residence of the Inca Atahuallpa, and the first view of the Pacific from the crest of the Andes—p. 265 to p. 302.

Quina-producing forests in the valleys of Loxa. First use of the fever-bark in Europe; the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the Viceroy 267-269

Alpine vegetation of the Paramos. Remains of ancient Peruvian artificial roads; they rise in the Paramo del Assuay almost to the height of the summit of Mont Blanc 269-277

Singular mode of communication by a “swimming post” messenger 277-279

Descent to the Amazons river. Vegetation round Chamaya and Tomependa; Red Groves of Bougainvillæa. Ridges of rock traverse the Amazons. Its breadth at the Pongo de Manseriche less than 160 English feet. The falling in of masses of rock at Rentema left the bed of the river below the falls dry for some hours, to the great alarm of those who lived on the banks 279-281

Passage across the chain of the Andes at the part where it is intersected by the magnetic equator. Ammonites nearly 15 English inches long, Echini, and Isocardias of the cretaceous group, collected between Guambos and Montan, 12790 English feet above the level of the sea. Rich silver mines of Chota. The picturesquely towering Cerro de Gualgayoc. Large mass of pure native silver in filaments or wire found in the Pampa de Navar. A fine piece of pure gold, wound round with similar threads of silver, found in the Choropampa (field of shells), so called from the numerous fossils. Outbursts of silver and gold ores amongst the cretaceous rocks. The small mountain town of Micuipampa is 11874 English feet above the level of the sea 282-286

From the mountain wilderness of the Paramo de Yanaguanga the traveller descends into the beautiful valley, or rather plateau, of Caxamarca (the elevation of which is nearly equal to that of the city of Quito). Hot baths of the Incas. Ruins of the Palace of Atahuallpa inhabited by his descendants, the family of Astorpilco, who live there in the greatest poverty. Strong belief of the still remaining subterranean “golden gardens” of the Inca beneath the ruins; such certainly existed in the valley of Yucay, beneath the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, and at several other points. Conversation with the youthful son of the Curaca Astorpilco. The room is still shewn in which (1553) the unhappy Atahuallpa was imprisoned for nine months, also the wall on which the Inca indicated the height to which he would fill the room with gold if he should regain his liberty. Manner in which the Inca was put to death on the 29th of August, 1533, and remarks on what are erroneously called “the indelible stains of blood” on a stone slab in front of the altar of the chapel of the state prison 287-295

Hope of a restoration of the empire of the Incas (which was also entertained by Raleigh) has been preserved among the natives. Cause of this expectation 295

Journey from Caxamarca to the sea-coast. Passage over the Cordillera by the Altos de Guangamarca. Often disappointed hope of enjoying the first view of the Pacific Ocean from the crest of the Andes. This hope at last fulfilled at an elevation of 9380 English feet 296-302

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 303 to p. 324.

On the origin of the name borne by the chain of the Andes 303-305

Epoch of the introduction of the Quina-bark in Europe 305, 306

Remains of the roads of the Incas, and of fortified dwellings; Apozentos de Mulalo, Fortalezar del Cañar, Inti-Guaycu 307, 308

On the ancient civilisation of the Chibchas or Muyscas of New Granada 308-310

Potatoes and Plantains, when first cultivated 311

Etymology of the word Cundinamarca, which has been corrupted from Cundirumarca, and was used in the first years of republican independence to denote the whole country of New Granada 311, 312

Chronometric connection of the town of Quito with Tomependa on the upper waters of the Amazons, and with Callao de Lima, the position of which was accurately determined by observations of the transit of Mercury on the 9th day of November, 1802 312, 313

Unpleasant etiquette in the Inca’s court. Atahuallpa’s captivity; his proposed ransom 314

Philosophic doubts of Huayna Capac (according to the report of Padre Blas Valera) respecting the Deity of the Sun. Objections of the Inca-government to the extension of knowledge among the poorer and lower classes of the people 316, 317

Raleigh’s project for restoring the dynasty of the Incas under English protection, for which a yearly tribute of several hundred thousand pounds was to be paid 317, 318

Earliest evidence obtained by Columbus of the existence of the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. The South Sea first beheld by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (25th Sept. 1513), and first navigated by Alonso Martin de Don Benito 318, 319

On the possibility of the formation of an oceanic canal (with fewer locks than the Caledonian Canal) through the Isthmus of Panama. Points in which the examination has been neglected 319-323

Determination of the longitude of Lima 323, 324