ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



XXVI. — Contributions to a History of the Relation between 

 Climate and Vegetation in various parts of the Globe. 



No. 10. — The Vegetation of the Indian Archipelago. By Dr. C. 

 G. C. Reinwardt, Professor of Chemistry, Botany, and Natural 

 History at the University of Leyden. 



(Freely translated and abridged from the German.) 

 That nothing determines the natural character of a country so 

 well as the vegetation which it produces, is an incontrovertible 

 fact. In it alone are the purely distinct and unadulterated fea- 

 tures of the country impressed. This, however, cannot be said 

 of all other natural productions. The soil and subsoil, the mi- 

 nerals and mountains, are little dependent on any particular 

 country. They may be the same in the most different parts of 

 the globe ; and experience teaches us that this is really the case. 

 As little are animals fit to characterise climate ; they are not 

 instantly met with and everywhere ; a great many fly from man- 

 kind and hide themselves. The residence, the departure, the 

 going to and fro of the animals from one country' to another, and 

 their return, is influenced by a great variety of causes. The 

 pliancy of their nature accommodates itself to circumstances ; 

 and a number of influences produces in them at last a certain in- 

 constancy and loss of character. There is not a country, therefore, 

 which derives one single distinct and conspicuous feature from its 

 animals. The plants, on the contrary, are fixed in their localities ; 

 they are a purer production of the country and climate ; no 

 foreign influence has operated upon them ; they receive their 

 whole existence from the ground in which they grow, and from 

 the surrounding objects. The influence of these objects shows 

 itself in unvarying features of vegetation, and in their unchange- 

 able renewal. 



It is to be understood that these remarks can only be applied 

 to a country which is still in its primitive natural state. Europe 

 can hardly furnish an example of it. Man is found everywhere ; 

 in Europe there is not a place in which he has not given signs 

 of his existence and its influence. He has almost everywhere 

 changed the surface of the earth, and thus deprived it of its 

 original character. Corn-fields and meadows supply the places 

 of natural forests ; in other parts they have been destroyed by 

 wars and conflagrations. The rivers in consequence have lost 

 their origin and springs ; many are dried up, and others have 

 had their course altered. The ground is broken up, and con- 



VOL. IV. R 



