373 
The Origin of the Existing Vegetable Creation. By Prorsssor J. F. 
ScHoUW. Transactions of the Meeting of the Scandinavian Naturalists 
at Copenhagen, in 1847, Append. K. p. 119. (Translated from the 
Danish, by N. Watuicn, M.D., F.R.S., V.P.L.8.) 
(Continued from p. 326.) 
3. Another fundamental question is this: Has the existing vegetation . 
of the globe been created at once, or by degrees ? 
It appears to me that much may be said in favour of the latter alter- 
native. We know that the surface of the globe has only gradually, and 
by various upheavings, become fitted for the growth of plants; and 
that soil and climate must, of course, have differed according to the 
different regions of the earth; we are, therefore, warranted in assuming, 
that each species was originally produced in such locality or localities as 
offered the most favourable conditions for its growth. Besides, it is 
acknowledged that the existence of certain plants depends on the 
existence of others, and that, therefore, the latter must necessarily have 
pre-existed. Parasites, both of the higher and lower classes, could not 
live, unless their supporting plants had been previously created. The 
vegetation of shady localities,—for instance, of forests,—may be pre- 
sumed not to have existed before trees were created; nor those plants 
which are peculiar to bogs, before the Mosses and Conferve which 
compose them. The vegetation produced by manure could not have . 
been formed while no manure existed. The vegetation on naked 
rocks commences with Lichens and  Mosses,* which accumulate a 
little mould and moisture, on which seeds of other plants may after- 
wards vegetate; but it is only by slow degrees that large plants, 
shrubs, and trees, can arise. Hence it is quite unlikely that, at the 
first creation of the vegetable world, plants in general should have been 
called into existence, before the conditions of such existence were in 
Operation. I must, accordingly, consider the gradual origin as in the 
_ highest degree probable. 
4. Are there among existing plants some which have been transferred 
from an anterior creation ? This question scarcely admits of a satisfac- 
tory solution, owing to the advancement of the science of Geology not 
being such, as to furnish precise limits between the present and the im- 
* Or else with succulent plants, deriving their nourishment from the atmospheric 
moisture. 
