446 On the Laivs observed in the Distvibulion 
out wandering from natural analogies, and after hawing com 
pared simple bodies under every point of view which can be 
presented by the properties which they possess. 
I shall return to the subject in another paper. 
XCIII. On the Laws observed in the Distribution of vegetable 
Forms. By ALexanper Count HuMbOLDT*. 
Boia ny, long confined to the simple desctiption of the external 
forms of plants and their artificial classification, now presents 
several branches of study, which place it more on a footing with 
the other sciences. Such are the distribution of vegetables ac- 
cording to a natural method founded upon the whole part of 
their structure ; physiology, which displays their internal organi- 
zation ; botanical geography, which assigns to each tribe of plants 
their height, limits, and climate. ‘The terms aépine plants, 
piants of kot countries, plants of the sea-shore, are to be found 
in all languages, even in those of the most savage nations on the 
banks of the Oronoko. They prove that the attention of men 
has been constantly fixed on the distribution of vegetables, and 
on their connexion with the temperature of the air, the elevation 
of the soil, and the nature of the ground which they inhabit. 
It does not require much sagacity to observe, that on thé slope 
of the high mountains of Armenia, vegetables of a different lati- 
tude follow each in succession, like the climates, superposed as it 
were upon each other. This idea of Tournefort, developed by 
Linneus in two interesting dissertations, (Stationes et Colonie 
Plantarum,) nevertheless contains the first seeds of botanical 
geography. Meuzel, the author of an unpublished Flora of Ja- 
pan, strongly recommends to travellers researches as to the dis- 
tribution of species in the different regions of the globe. He 
had even pointed out the result before by the name of the Geo- 
graphy of Plants. This appellation was again employed, and 
almost at the same time, about the year 1783, by the Abbé 
Giraud Soulavie, and by the celebrated author of the Studies of 
Nature ; a work which, amid a great variety of very inaccurate 
ideas as to the physique of the globe, contains some profound 
and ingenious views as to the forms, relations, and habitudes of 
vegetables. Abbé Giraud Soulavie was occupied in preference 
with the plants already cultivated: he has distinguished the cli- 
mates of the olive trees, the vines, and the chesnuts. He gives 
a vertical section of Mount Mezin, to which he has added the 
* Extracted from a paper read to the French Institute, Feb, 5, 1816. 
barometrical 
