CHAPTER II. 
TRANSFER, MODIFICATION, AND EXTIRPATION OF VEGETABLE AND 
OF ANIMAL SPECIES. 
Modern geography takes account of organic life-—-Geographical importance 
of plants—Origin of domestic vegetables—Transfer of vegetable life— 
Objects of modern commerce—Foreign plants, how introduced—Vegetable 
power of accommodation—Agricultural products of the United States— 
Useful American plants grown in Europe—Extirpation of vegetables— 
Animal life as a geological and geographical agency—Origin and transfer 
of domestic quadrupeds—Extirpation of wild quadrupeds—Large marine 
animals relatively unimportant in geography—Introduction and breeding 
of fish—Destruction of fish—Geographical importance of birds—Introduc- 
tion of birds—-Destruction of birds—Utility and destruction of reptiles— 
Utility of insects and worms—Injury to the forest by insects—Introduc- 
tion of insects—Destruction of insects—Minute organisms. 
Modern Geography embraces Organic Life. 
Ir was a narrow view of geography which confined that 
science to delineation of terrestrial surface and outline, and to 
description of the relative position and magnitude of land and 
water. In its improved form it embraces not only the globe 
itself and the atmosphere which bathes it, but the living 
things which vegetate or move upon it, the varied influences 
they exert upon each other, the reciprocal action and reaction 
between them and the earth they inhabit. Even if the end of 
geographical studies were only to obtain a knowledge of the 
external forms of the mineral and fluid masses which constitute 
the globe, it would still be necessary to take into account the 
element of life ; for every plant, every animal, is a geographical 
agency, man a destructive, vegetables, and in some cases even 
wild beasts, restorative powers. 
