food, and of the cork-tree (_Quercus Suber_), mixed with other characteristic trees and shrubs, such as _Erica arborea_, numerous species of _Cistus_, with ephemeral flowers, often large and of dazzling brilliance, and of _Cytisus_, _Genista_, etc. Among the other species characteristic of these happy regions we may cite the cypress (_Cupressus_), the Aleppo pine, the stone pine, planes, the olive, which we scarcely meet with elsewhere; mastic-tree (_Pistacia lentiscus_), and the pomegranate (_Ceratona Siliqua_), etc. Over a great part of the south coast of Sicily, a palm, the _Chamærops humilis_, with fan-like foliage, waves sometimes beside the date, from the bosom of a clump of oranges and citrons, its tall stipe crowned with an elegant panicle of drooping and feather-like leaves. It would require a volume to give even an idea of the rich and varied vegetation of Asia. We must limit ourselves to a rapid glance of the features most characteristic of its Northern, Central, and Southern divisions. The Northern region, or Siberia, forms a botanical region in close connection with the northern region of Europe in the one direction, and with its own middle region in the other. It has its own peculiar character, nevertheless, from the predominance of certain families, such as _Leguminosæ_, _Ranunculaceæ_, _Cruciferæ_, _Liliaceæ_, and _Umbelliferæ_. Some genera are remarkable for the number of their species; we may quote _Astragalus_ among the _Leguminosæ_; _Spiræa_ among the _Rosaceæ_; and _Artemisia_ among the _Compositæ_. Considering that the mean temperature varies from 29° to 46° Fahr., we can not reckon on a condition of vegetation very varied. Forests are formed by larch, spruce, _Pinus Cembra_, _P. sibirica_, _P. sylvestris_, etc.; white and balsam poplars and isolated balsamic plants, dwarf birches, service-trees, alder buckthorn, alders, willows, accompany them, while whortleberries and rhododendrons form the under-shrubs. The flora of the steppes of Kamtchatka does not differ materially from that of the pasturages of central Europe. According as the spectator expects these to be rich or sterile, he is the more or less surprised to find stately tulips and graceful irises mingling with the grassy turf in spring, but the wormwood (_Artemisia_) and other monotonous forms of vegetation succeed them.