of Peru and Columbia." The fructification has never yet been gathered in this country. Dickson represents, in his figure of the plant, globose lateral tubercles; and Mr Menzies' American specimens, we are informed by Sir J. E. Smith, were furnished with what seemed the young shields of a Parmelia. Robert Brown also, in "Parry's First Voyage," Appendix, p. 307, mentions that he observed in some arctic specimens, "apothecia lateralia, sparsa, atra, thallo innata, eoque submarginata, apotheciis Rocellæ aliquo modo accedentia." Fries does not consider it a genuine and distinct species at all, but merely a degenerate or monstrous form of Scyphophorus gracilis, Hook., produced by growing in moist situations at a great altitude. To all appearance, indeed, it seems a spurious form of some Scyphophorus; either of the above species or of alcicornis or endiviæfolia, which are well known to be exceedingly protean in their forms. On Ben Lawers we have very distinct regions of altitude, marked by lichens which prevail in them, and which seldom or never occur either at higher or lower elevations; and this hill, from its great height and bulk, represents tolerably well the distribution of similar species, not only on the other mountains in Britain but also on those of foreign countries. These regions or zones of altitude are somewhat analogous to, and very nearly as well defined as those of the phanerogamous plants; and the same names I think might be employed to designate both. For instance, at the base of the hill we have the lichens peculiar to the plains and the valleys, of which Parmelia saxatilis, Evernia prunastri, and other saxicolate, terricolate, and tree species too numerous to mention, may be considered as the representatives. This zone might be called the Agrarian Zone; the plants which compose it, in general, seldom ascending higher than a few hundred feet, but are widely dispersed over the level surface of the globe. It contains by far the largest proportion not only of species but of individuals. The next, the middle zone, comprises such lichens as Parmelia omphalodes, Cladonia rangiferina, Lecanora ventosa and tartarea, Lecidea geographica, Gyrophora polyphylla and pellita, Cornicularia tristis and aculeata, Isidium corallinum, and Stereocaulon paschale. Some of these lichens are very erratic, occurring at very high and low altitudes, and in some instances occupying the very last outposts of vegetation on the lofty snow-crowned mountains of the globe; but in general they are found in the greatest quantity and luxuriance in portions of the mountains commencing at an altitude of 800 feet, and terminating at that of 2000 feet, and, like the lichens of the zone beneath, are very widely distributed, some being even cosmopolitan; and in some countries occurring in such immense profusion as to give quite a peculiar character to the scenery. The next zone, beginning at a height of 2000, and terminating at that of 3000 or a few more hundred feet, which may very appropriately be termed the Arctic Zone, as its plants are eminently northern species, contains, among several others, Isidium oculatum, Cladonia vermicularis, Cornicularia lanata, Cetraria islandica, Solorina saccata, Gyrophora proboscidea, deusta, and erosa, Parmelia fahlunensis, Squamaria leucolepis and gelida, and Lecidea fusco-lutea; and the highest or Super-arctic Zone comprehends Verrucaria Hookeri, Lecanora frustulosa, Solorina crocea, Parmelia stygia, and Cetraria nivalis. It will thus be seen, I think, that the lichens in general are congregated in such a way as to form distinct regions or zones of altitude, which have remained unchanged as long as we have any record. It is indeed much easier to indicate precisely the geographical range and distribution of the lichens, both as regards altitude and latitude, than it is of the mosses, although both, from the thousand varied and unaccountable circumstances which operate in their dispersion, may seem to obey no constant controlling or regulating laws. 39 Displacement and Extinction among the Primeval Races of Man. By DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature, University College, Toronto.* Among the many difficult problems which the thoughtful observer has to encounter, in an attempt to harmonize the actual with his ideal of the world as the great theatre of the human race, none assumes a more intricate and inexplicable aspect than the displacement and extinction of races, such as the Anglo-Saxon has witnessed on the American continent for upwards of two centuries. In all ages history discloses to us unmistakeable evidence, not only of the distinctions which civilization produces, but of the fundamental differences whereby a few highly favoured races have outsped all others; triumphing in the onward progress of the nations, not less by an innate constitutional superiority, than by an acquired civilization, or by local advantages. And if we are still troubled with the perplexities of this dark riddle, whereby the colonists of the New World only advance by the retrogression of the Red Man, and tread, in their western progress, on the graves of nations, it may not be without its interest to note some unmistakeable evidences of this process of displacement and extinction, accompanying the progress of the human race from the very dawn of its history. One, and only one record supplies any authoritative or credible statement relative to the origin of the human race. Geology has indeed, by its negative evidence, confirmed in its response the inspired answer of the patriarch,-"Enquire of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers, for we are but of yesterday;" but it is to the Mosaic record we must turn for any definite statement on a subject concerning which the mythologies of all nations have professed to furnish some information. Every attentive reader of the Bible must have observed that the Book of Genesis, or the Beginning, is divided into two separate and perfectly distinct histories: the first, an account of the Creation, and the general history of mankind till the dispersion: the Genesis, pro Read before the Canadian Institute, 1st Dec. 1855. perly so called, extending over a period of considerably more than two thousand years, and contained in the first ten chapters and nine verses of the eleventh; while the remaining chapters, and indeed nearly the whole of the historical Books of the Old Testament, are exclusively devoted to the one selected race, that of Abraham and his descendants. Looking then to the first of these, and to its narrative in relation to the immediate descendants of Noah, the recognized protoplasts of the primary subdivisions of the human family, we perceive that certain very marked and permanent differences are assigned to each. Ham, the father of Canaan, by negation is left without a blessing, while Canaan is marked as the progenitor of a race destined to degradation as the servant of servants. The blessing of Shem is peculiar, as if it were designed chiefly to refer to the one branch of his descendants, "to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God;" but to his various descendants a special rank is assigned in the world's future; special, predominant in relation to some branches of the human family; but yet inferior and of temporary duration when compared with the destinies of the Japhetic races, who, enlarging their bounds, and encroaching on the birthright of the elder nations, are destined to "dwell in the tents of Shem," and Canaan shall serve them. Thus from the very first we perceive that one important subdivision of the human family is stamped, ab initio, with the marks of degradation; while another, the Semitic, is privileged to be the first partaker of the blessing, to be the originator of the world's civilization, and to furnish the chosen custodiers of its most valued inheritance, through the centuries which anticipated the fulness of time; yet the nations of this stock are destined to displacement, for "Japhet shall be enlarged, and shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Thus, also, from the very first we perceive the origination of a strongly marked and clearly defined distinction between diverse branches of the human family; and this, coupled with the apportionment of the several regions of the earth to the distinct types of man, distinguished from each other not less clearly than are the varied fauna of these regions, seems to leave no room for doubt that the genus Homo was as clearly subdivided into diverse varieties, if not into distinct species, as any other of the great mammalian types of species ranged over the earth's surface according to a recognised law of geographical distribution. At the same time it is apparent that such assigned differences do not, thus far, affect the question of the unity of the race. To the claim of a common manhood for those strongly marked and greatly diversified subdivisions of the human family, including its most immobile and degraded types, Shakspeare has furnished no inapt reply : "Aye, in the catalogue, ye go for men ; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, That writes them all alike and so of men."* Looking, then, to the recorded descendants of the Noahic forefathers of the human family, we can, partially at least, trace their primitive subdivisions and occupation of the ancient earth. The sons of Japhet, the final inheritors of pre-eminence, are first recorded as dividing among them "the isles of the Gentiles," a term which, looking to the geographical limits known to the ancient world, may be assumed, with little hesitation, as referring to the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, and probably the Grecian Archipelago, with the adjacent coast lands of Asia Minor, and of Europe. There have been ingenious attempts made to assign to each of the Noahic generations their national descendants: the Cymri from Gomer, the Getæ from Magog, the Medes from Madai, the Ionian Greeks from Javan, &c.; but the majority of such results commend themselves to our acceptance at best as only clever guesses at truth. A considerable number of the names which occur in the Noahic genealogy undoubtedly remain, very partially disguised by subsequent changes, as the *Macbeth, Act III. Scene 1. |