on the Geographic of Plants, ^S9 



comprehends both under the denomination History of Plants. 

 M. Stromeyer denominates both, Geoguaphical History op 

 Plants, by which the confusion is not obviated. However, he 

 has himself felt the necessity of a division, for the objects enu- 

 merated at p. xiv., under No. 1. 2. and 3., belong, the first, to 

 the geography, and the two last, to the history, of plants. This 

 perception, also, occasioned him to divide his arrangement into 

 two principal sections. 



In my opinion, the Geography of Plants, is that science 

 which teaches us to know the Appearance, Dissemination, 

 AND Distribution of Plants, as these exist at present 

 WITH A due consideration of other matters connected 

 with tiiem. It considers the different habitats of plants, and 

 the distinction between those kinds which are social and those 

 which are solitary, as well as between such as are plentiful and 

 such as are rare; which is perhaps sufficiently expressed by the 

 word (vorkommen) occurrence. It determines the extent of dis- 

 tricts over which the plants are spread ; and the laws according 

 to which not merely the whole vegetable world, but likewise par- 

 ticiflar families and genera, are distributed in respect to geogra- 

 phical longitude and latitude, altitude, &c. It borrows from 

 physics and physiology the laws, according to which external 

 circumstances, as soil, temperature, moisture, c^c, act upon 

 vegetables, for the purpose of comparison with those by which 

 the geographical distribution, Sfc, are governed. We may also 

 compose an Q^conomical Geography of Plants, founded 

 on the results of scientific researches in civil occupations, 

 particularly in agriculture, gardening, and forest-culture. 

 (Forstwesen.) 



The History of Plants, on the other hand, teaches us the 

 l.AWS, THE Varieties and the Decay of their Organi- 

 zation. This science, also, resolves the questions, When, 

 where, and how were vegetables first produced ? To what ex- 

 tent are we justified in admitting the transportation cf plants? 

 Have old species disappeared, and new ones been produced? Is 

 it possible that one species, through the influence of external 



