20 Mcrriain Geographic Distribution of Life, 



Date Author How regarded Based on R<ik 



1886 Hartlaub As an independent region Birds 2 



(Antillean liegion). 



1887 Heilprin . . . ' . As a subdivision of his Neo- Animals 2 



tropical Region. 

 1887 Reichenow . . . As part of his South American Birds 



liegion. 

 1890 Merriam As a division of his Tropical Animals and 2 



Province. plants. 



Northwest Coast Division. 



In 1843 Hinds, in mapping the plant regions of the world, 

 proposed a ' Northwest American Region ' for the area west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, north of the Columbia River, and south of lati- 

 tude 68 north. Agassiz, in his paper on the Zoological regions of 

 the earth (1854), gave the name 'Northwest Coast Fauna'' to 

 essentially the same area (shown on his map as extending along 

 the Pacific from northern California to the base of the Umilaskan 

 peninsula). 



In 1859 Le Conte, who based his studies on Coleoptera, spoke 

 of this region as the 'Hyperborean Province' 1 of the Pacific dis- 

 trict ; and the same year Cooper, writing of forest regions, de- 

 scribed it as the 'Caurine Province. 1 W. G. Binney, in 1873, 

 mentioned it as the 'Oregonian Division ' of the Pacific Province ; 

 Engler, in 1882, as the 'Kaloschen Zone' ; Drude, in 1884, as the 

 ' Columbian District'' ; Nelson, in 1887, as the ' Sitkan District' 1 ; 

 Brendel, in 1887, as the l North Pacific Province.'' 



Prairie Division. 



A few botanists, influenced by the widely different aspects of 

 nature resulting from the presence or absence of forests, have 

 recognized a ' Prairie Region ' as one of the great floral divisions 

 of North America. It was first proposed by Pickering, in 1830. 

 Pickering named it the 'Louisianian Flora,' and gave its bound- 

 aries as the Mississippi on the east and the Rocky Mountains on 

 the west. Hinds described it, in 1843, as " a peculiar tract 

 enclosed by the vast forests of North America." He named it 

 the ' Prairie Region,' and said it extended "from within a hun- 

 dred miles of the west bank of the Mississippi to the Rocky 

 Mountains, stretching north to 54 north latitude, and again only 

 bounded on the south by the wooded country of the Texas and 

 the Mexican Sea." 



