Bibliographical Notices. ^11 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Vegetation of Europe, its Conditions and Causes. 

 By A. Henfrey, F.L.S. London: Van Voorst, 1852. 



This little work supplies a deficiency in our popular Botanical litera- 

 ture. Before its appearance there was no book to which a person 

 desirous of knowing something of the geographical distribution of the 

 plants of Europe could refer, and those who were determined to attain 

 a knowledge of that interesting subject of inquiry had to consult 

 many and rare works written- in various languages. The modest tone 

 in which the author speaks is deserving of all praise, but we must 

 not allow it to be supposed that the book is really so mere a " rough- 

 draft" as he states it to be. Doubtless a person who has studied the 

 subject in the detail necessary to collect the materials used in it may 

 be led to look upon it as a sketch ; but it is so full a sketch as pro- 

 bably to satisfy most readers, since all the more prominent, and there- 

 fore the most interesting facts of the subject are very clearly placed 

 before them. 



The introductory part, treating of the causes of differences of cli- 

 mate, and of the influences of soils, exposure, &c. on the diffusion 

 of plants, jis highly deserving of attention. We think however there 

 is not quite sufficient weight given to the influence of the Gulf-stream 

 on the climate, and therefore the vegetation of the north-western 

 coasts of Europe. We believe that that has by far the greatest in- 

 fluence of any natural cause in producing the high and equable tem- 

 perature of the western coasts of Britain and Scandinavia ; and that 

 if, as has been suggested with much probability, that stream were 

 turned off by an opening through Central America, or by a slight 

 depression of the Mississippi and Mackenzie river-valleys, so as to 

 allow it to take its natural course either into the Pacific Ocean in the 

 one case, or the Arctic Sea in the other, the climate of these coasts 

 would become similar to that of Labrador, and render Britain and 

 much of Scandinavia nearly uninhabitable by restoring them to the 

 state which seems once to have existed, at the time that is, of what 

 geologists call the glacial period. 



It is impossible to enter into a description of the contents of such 

 a work as this, which is made up of an enormous mass of facts col- 

 lected wifti care and much skill from the writings of those who have 

 treated in detail of the Botanical Geography of their respective coun- 

 tries ; neither does it seem desirable to extract isolated parts, since 

 they would convey a very imperfect idea of the whole, for each por- 

 tion of the book is most closely connected with those which succeed 

 and follow it. 



We beg leave to congratulate the author on a great improvement 

 in his style, which, in some of his former productions, was rather dry' 

 and unpleasant to read, but here presents his multitude of facts in an 

 interesting and popular, but at the same time sufficiently scientific 

 form. We have no doubt that the readers of his present book will 

 rise from its perusal with a feeling of having derived much pleasure 

 and information from it. 



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