it VEGETATION. 



as we approach towards the equator ; where its pow 

 ers can be estimated, only by the magnificence of its 

 productions. There the light of the sun is more vivid, 

 Its heat more permanent and intense, while the soil 

 is equally fertile, and the atmosphere equally pure. 



In southern Georgia, an island of the frozen ocean,, 

 only two plants have been discovered, and but thirty 

 have been found to grow without cultivation, in the 

 more temperate climate of Spitzberg. How contemp- 

 r ible are these productions, when compared with those 

 of our own climate, or the still more fertile fields of 

 Madagascar ! But deprive Madagascar of its heat, and 

 it becomes a second Greenland. Exclude the light of 

 the sun, and like the dark caverns of the earth, it will 

 produce only a few plants, and those of a sickly hue. 

 Destitute of rain, it will be like the deserts of Africa, 

 and unsupplied with air, it will exhibit no vestige of 

 life. We must therefore expect, as we recede from 

 the equator, to meet with a constant succession of new 

 plants, but as we advance, we shall find them less nu- 

 merous snd perhaps of inferior beauty and size. And 

 as we ascend above the surface of the ocean, we must 

 be prepared for asimilar, though more rapid succession. 

 This was long ago established by the observations of 

 Tournefort, and it has more recently been verified, by 

 the researches of Humboldt and Decandolle ; but an 

 account of their observations must be reserved for a 

 subsequent chapter. 



