Mr. R. B. Hinds on Geographic Botany. 89 



XI. — Memoirs on Geographic Botany. By Richard Brinsley 

 Hinds, Sm-geon, R.N., F.R. Coll. Surg. 



[Continued from p. 30.] 



If it has been ever the reader^s fortune to traverse an extensive 

 ocean, he must have felt at the end of the voyage that all his 

 previous ideas respecting space had undergone a considerable 

 modification. During the voyage he has often gone on deck to 

 view the vessel hastening through the water, and to gaze on the 

 unchanging horizon ; day after day he beholds the vessel hurrying 

 on, but the scene around remains the same. As his observations 

 extend, he compares the velocity of his ship and the unchange- 

 able nature of the scene, till he becomes insensibly impressed 

 with the extent and vastness of the surface over which he has 

 travelled. He has had a practical proof of a circumstance, which 

 it is very true his reason might have partially displayed to him, 

 but it has made a much firmer impression on his mind than any 

 effort of intelligence could have produced, and the importance is 

 proportionately increased. In fact, he concludes his voyage with 

 his ideas of space greatly enlarged, and the world he inhabits 

 seems to him larger than he ever thought it was before. 



A very similar feeling possesses the traveller as he penetrates 

 an extensive forest. Every morning he commences his journey, 

 patiently pursuing the winding pathways through interminable 

 multitudes of trees and shrubs, till, when evening arrives, he is 

 hardly less fatigued with the monotony of the scene than with 

 the exertions of the day. His feelings are the same as those at 

 sea, — he is surprised at the interminable character of the scene, 

 and his ideas of space are measured by a greater standard. He 

 wonders at the vast multitudes of vegetable beings ; whence they 

 could possibly have drawn nourishment to rear such solid struc- 

 tures ; he speculates on their age, and lastly on their use. In both 

 cases the ideas of space are the same, but they have received an 

 impulse from the novelty of the scene ; perhaps assisted also by 

 the perfect stillness which reigns so completely in deep forests, 

 and during the heat of the day the silence is more painful than 

 on the wide ocean. The chief difference between the two is, 

 that one is a sea of waters, the other a sea of trees. 



The reader who has confined his travels to his own country, I 

 would reconmaend to open a map of the two Americas. Let him 

 trace them throughout from north to south, and he will scarcely 

 find a spot which does not support a vegetation of some kind or 

 other; the deserts and ungenial spots being few and limited. 

 A great part is covered with forest-trees of unequalled growth, 

 and where a smaller vegetation prevails, the number of individuals 

 is greater than ever. It is not merely the tropic regions which 



Ann. &^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol xv. H 



