342 



PART 11. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Picture of Organised Nature^ in its spreading over the 

 Earth. By Wilbrand and Ritsen. Pamphlet, in 12mo, 

 pp.90., and a Map, or Picture, 2 ft. by 4 ft. 3 in., coloured. 

 London. Translated from the German. 15*. 



With every disposition to profit from this pictorial view of 

 organised nature, we fear we have not been very successful. 

 The object of the production is useful, as leading to compre- 

 hensive views ; but the plan not sufficiently clear and obvious 

 for general comprehension. The authors, as it appears to us, 

 have failed in their objects, by endeavouring to show the in- 

 fluence of two laws, latitude and elevation, in one picture, 

 instead of making use of two pictures. The distribution of 

 organised beings, according to the laws of latitude, would have 

 been rendered clearer by writing the natural orders on a map 

 of the world on a large scale ; and their distribution, accord- 

 ing to the law of elevation jointly with latitude, by sections 

 of the principal mountains of the different zones of both hemi- 

 spheres ; or by sections of an imaginary mountain for each 

 zone. Useful general ideas, we think, might be communi- 

 cated in this way ; but the only effectual manner to convey 

 through the eye a correct knowledge of the geographical dis- 

 tribution of plants and animals, is by devoting a map of the 

 world to each particular order. As natural history advances, 

 and the art of writing books on it improves, it may become 

 the practice to accompany the description of each particular 

 order, or even genus, with a map, and sections of the earth's 

 surface, and the proportion and particular parts of them occu- 

 pied by that order or genus delineated and rendered conspi- 

 cuous. Thus, supposing the geographical distribution of any 

 order, any Dulgodiaceae for instance, were to be delineated, the 

 place which that order occupied on the flat or general surface of 

 the earth, i. e. its distribution according to the laws of latitude, 

 would be represented by shading, or marking with colours or 

 dots on the plan ( fig, \02» a b c d) ; and its distribution in both 



