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



main satisfied with his knowledge. With the zoologist it is dif- 

 ferent ; the catastrophe of the deluge necessarily swept all ani- 

 mated beings from the surface of the earthy excepting those pre- 

 served in the ark; an opinion strengthened by geologists, who 

 regard the deluge as having been universal. At the subsiding of 

 the waters the animals emerged from a focus, whence they were 

 to spread to all regions. As it is allowed that plants and animals 

 were distributed by the same laws, and the universality of the 

 deluge being also allowed, there is wanting something in the hi- 

 story of animals and plants to place them under the same condi- 

 tions. As we shall presently see, plants did not spread from one 

 or several centres, but simultaneously covered everywhere the dry 

 land. The inferences urging this conclusion are numerous and 

 satisfactory, and this point once established to the conviction of 

 botanists, the animal kingdom must be left to the inquiries of the 

 zoologist. 



It was imagined by Linnaeus that all plants, birds and beasts 

 diverged from one centre ; indeed, that all organized beings were 

 created in one spot, whence they spread far and wide to beautify 

 and people the earth. This region enjoyed a mild and lovely cli- 

 mate, and to secure those varieties of temperature necessary for 

 the existence of many, it was provided with a range of mountains 

 and intervening valleys, where each could enjoy that climate most 

 congenial to its habits. It would be useless to attempt to refute 

 this, as its inaccuracies are evident on the slightest inspection ; 

 even the facts adduced for its support cannot be admitted at the 

 present day. It is evidently the offspring of the imagination of 

 the author, which always adorned his conceptions and writings, 

 but in this, as in other instances, was destitute of the necessary 

 solidity. Perhaps no similar class of men w^ere ever so devoted 

 to science as the pupils of Linnseus ; many of them were travellers, 

 and by their researches in distant countries the study of plants 

 became greatly extended. As facts poured in, the hypothesis of 

 Linnseus gradually lost ground, for it was discovered that the 

 state of botany in different countries did not bear it out. Instead 

 of one centre it was now maintained that there had been several, 

 whence all organized beings were disseminated, more particularly 

 plants. Willdenow was the most conspicuous promoter of this 

 view, but it was merely a transition to the opinions received at 

 present. It was however still maintained that those centres were 

 mountain- chains, now regarded rather as barriers to a flora than 

 fit surfaces for its diffusion. 



The present state of our knowledge invites us to the conclusion, 

 that wherever there existed a suitable combination of circum- 

 stances, there vegetation sprung up. Whatever might have been 

 the state of the surface, whether valley, mountain or plain, it made 



