582 

 Notices of New Books, 4'c. 



^Tlie Vegetation of Europe, its Conditions and Causes. By Arthur 

 Henfrey, F.L.S., &c., &c. London: John Van Voorst. 185 J.' 



Mr. Henfrey has undertaken an arduous task — that of collect- 

 ing, arranging, and condensing into a convenient and accessible form, 

 the accumulated materials of half a century in relation to the distri- 

 bution of the European Flora. For although the systematic investi- 

 gation of the lavrs which regulate the distribution of plants, is a 

 branch of science of comparatively recent date, yet its progress of late 

 years has been rapid indeed. It seems to have been only about the 

 commencement of the present century, that philosophic naturalists be- 

 gan to reason upon observed and recorded facts bearing upon the dis- 

 tribution of vegetable forms over the face of the earth. These facts 

 must indeed have early forced themselves upon the attention of tra- 

 vellers ; for, as Humboldt has well observed, " observers who, in short 

 periods of time have passed over vast tracts of land, and ascended 

 lofty rqountains, in which climates are ranged, as it were, in strata, 

 one above another, must have been early impressed by the regularity 

 with which vegetable forms are distributed." Thus Tournefort on 

 Mount Ararat, and Bembo on Etna, three centuries ago, compared the 

 various zones or regions of vegetation as observed by them on the de- 

 clivities of those mountains, with the similar zones or regions into 

 which the earth may be divided in proceeding from the equatorial to 

 the polar regions : and it was upon such observations that Humboldt 

 founded his celebrated ' Essay on the Geographical Distribution of 

 Plants,' which appeared in 1807, and served as the starting-point 

 for a more elaborate and more extended work on the ' Geography of 

 Plants,' which the same learned author gave to the world some ten 

 years subsequently. In this last-named work the distribution of 

 plants, whether on a large or a small scale, is shown to depend upon 

 the physical qualities and conditions of the globe and its attendant 

 atmosphere. Other philosophers have turned their attention to the 

 elucidation of the laws of vegetable distribution ; the consequence is, 

 that none but those who are fortunate enough to be able to devote a 

 considerable portion of their time to scientific research, are able to 

 keep pace with the rapidity with which information on this interesting 

 subject is accumulating : to many a lover of science, therefore, as well 



