EstahVishment of Vegetation at the surface of the dole. 73 



resources which she employs to overcome obstacles, and diffuse 

 motion and life throughout. We have followed her in the 

 plains, upon the mountains, in the moving sands, and in the 

 very bosom of the waters. If we now descend into the cavities 

 where the light never penetrates, we shall there find peculiar 

 plants, destined to dwell in darkness, such as certain species of 

 rhizomorphae, byssi, &c. In short there are no substances, 

 whether contained in the open air^ or in the waters, laid open 

 to the light, or concealed in the most obscure recesses, exposed 

 to humidity or to dryness, which are not occupied by plants 

 adapted for these different localities. The moulds attack all our 

 alimentary provisions, when they are left undisturbed and kept 

 in damp places ; numerous fungi, enormous boleti, grow in the 

 shade upon plants in a state of putrefaction ; lichens and mosses 

 penetrate the wrinkled bark of trees ; a multitude of animals of 

 a very inferior order, such as larvae of insects, worms, moUusca, 

 whether naked or testaceous, Crustacea, arachnidoe, establish 

 their abode in the midst of this growing vegetation ; they de- 

 posit their offspring there, live in abundance, like our herds in 

 the pastures, enjoy the coolness and the shade, like the great 

 animals in their forests. In this manner is propagated the su- 

 blime work of creation in those organic beings which contribute, 

 during their life, by their secretions, and after their death by 

 their spoils, to the augmentation of vegetable earth, and of many 

 other inorganic substances. 



Ohservatiwis made during a Visit to Madeira^ and a Residence 

 in the Canary Islands. By Baron Leopold Von Buch. 

 (Continued from former volume, p. 380.) 



xIlT this we were much surprised. We did not imagine we 

 had climbed to such a height, and we thought that it was 

 impossible to ascend so high in Madeira. The accounts of the 

 height of Pico Ruivo, which is by far the highest mountain 

 on the island, stood far below our calculation of the height 

 of Toringas. Dr Thomas Heberden (a brother of Dr William 

 Heberden, to whom we are indebted for the remarkable obser- 



