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2. Distribution of Plants. 



1. Any ramble round about our houses teaches us that 

 plants are variously distributed. Some prefer the open field as 

 their habitat, others the shady woods; some prefer the rich 

 loam near rivers and tanks; others choose the dry and rocky soil 

 of hills or deserts. It is the difference of soil, light, and 

 moisture, which thus conditions the change of vegetation in 

 various places. 



2. An excursion into remoter parts of our country, or to the 

 top of a high mountain, shows a still greater difference. This is 

 due to the change of the climate, viz , heat and moisture, in 

 various parts of India. 



So, when we ascend a mountain of the Himalayas, we have 

 to travel through different belts of vegetation: about the base we 

 find Palms and Bananas; a little higher, Bamboos, Figs, Ferns, 

 etc.; higher up. Myrtles and Laurels; then Conifers and dwarf- 

 trees; and in the highest regions the flowering plants cease to 

 grow, and leave the place to Mosses and other Cryptogams. 



The same succession of different classes of plants is noticed 

 by travellers from the equatorial to the polar regions of the earth. 



3. An important part in the distribution of plants is played 

 by man. It is he who has brought new plants from foreign 

 countries and from far remote continents to our land (Spanish 

 Pepper, Coffee, Tobacco, Potato, and many others) ; who has 

 cultivated large tracts of land with food-crops and other useful 

 plants (Cereals, Pulses, Cotton, etc.), having suppressed the 

 indigenous weeds that were growing there before; who cuts down 

 forests to plant crops more necessary; who drains swamps and 

 irrigates deserts to make them fertile. 



