( 64 ) 



Establishment of Vegetation at the Surface of the Globe *. 



VV E have seen vegetation covering, with verdure and flowers, 

 all parts of our globe ; We have seen it extending itself from the 

 bottom of the valleys to the most elevated places, resisting, in the 

 plains, the burning rays of the sun, struggling upon the moun- 

 tains with the frosts, bursting forth every summer from beneath 

 the snows, and only stopping short at the zone of perpetual ice. 

 But how does this vegetation come to cover the nakedness of 

 rocks, to fix the mobility of sands, to implant itself in the strong 

 gravel, to convert immense lakes into marshes, and these again 

 into forests and fields ? for such was, and such still is, the sur- 

 face of the globe, in all places destitute of vegetation, whether 

 in islands which have newly sprung from the bosom of the wa- 

 ters, or in tracts where the soil has been overturned by particu- 

 lar accidents, or deprived, by other circumstances, of their an- 

 cient verdure ; such, also, do we find it, if we remove the layer, 

 more or less thick, of earth which clothes it. This earth is, 

 therefore, of new formation, as well as the vegetation which it 

 supports ; it has not been formed simultaneously with the rock 

 on which it rests, or with the bed of sand which it covers. 



This important observation is commonly overlooked. Accus- 

 tomed to see the same flowers re-appear at each return of spring, 

 the same meadows clothed again in fresh verdure, we scarcely 



• Of all the branches of Natural History, undoubtedly Botany is that which 

 has hitherto (mineralogy and geology now dividing with it the public atten- 

 tion), in Britain, been the most generally cultivated : hence every where 

 we find splendid gardens and conservatories ; and numerous works on bo- 

 tany are daily issuing from the press. Distinguished botanists have not been 

 wanting in England : and Scotland, althoiigh behind in this science, has 

 given to England several young, intelligent, and active botanists, — to Eu- 

 rope its greatest botanist, our illustrious countryman Brown : but, strange 

 to say, the only naturalists who have actively embarked in the botany of 

 Scotland, have been principally Englishmen or foreigners. Scotland offers still 

 a fine and unexplored field to the'philosophic botanist, — in the investigation of 

 the physical and geographical distribution of its land and aquatic plants. He 

 who shall undertake this highly interesting investigation, must be intimately 

 acquainted with the facts and reasonings of meteorology and hydrography,— 

 with the details and views of geology ; and the ardent inquirer into the geo- 

 graphy of plants cannot expect to illustrate it, without also knowing the na- 

 tural history of animals ; and, finally, he must be familiar with the use of the 

 barometer, and other instruments.— Edit. • 



