584 



" Few behold unmoved the brilliant tints of the spring buds, fring- 

 ing the spray of every re-awkening tree like a joyous decoration cele- 

 brating the return of warmth and active life, or the graduated hues of 

 autumn's garb ; — they typify to us too plainly the changeful course of 

 our own existence not to arouse something more than a passing feeling 

 of wonder or admiration." — P. 1. 



Mr. Henfrey then briefly alludes to the comparatively modern ori- 

 gin of botanical geography as a science ; and proceeds to show its 

 early stages and gradual development in the following words : — 



" The contrasts and diversities among the characteristic vegetations 

 of different lands force themselves upon the most superficial observer. 

 Since the earliest period of which we have record, the peculiarity of 

 certain plants to certain countries or regions has attracted observa- 

 tion, and the narratives of the earlier navigators of European nations 

 are full of glowing pictures of the treasures unfolded to them in the 

 more favoured climes to which they penetrated. The tropics were 

 depicted as earthly paradises, in which 



' Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree, 

 Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea ; ' 



and in which man lies idly waiting while nature pours out at his feet 

 the rich harvest of luxurious fruits, unknown in our temperate regions, 

 where the ever-recurring check periodically arrests the forces of vege- 

 tation, and the less favouring climate compels him to the labours of 

 the field, yielding to his toil and uremitting care a limited and frugal 

 recompense. Travellers had told, too, that in the far north even this 

 partial bounty is denied ; that man is cut off altogether from that ve- 

 getable food which is lavished in profusion at his slightest demands 

 beneath a warmer sky, while his companion the reindeer scrapes a 

 scanty repast from beneath the snowy covering of the soil. 



" ' The carpet of flowers and of verdure spread over the naked crust 

 of our planet is unequally woven ; it is thicker where the sun rises 

 high in the ever-cloudless heavens, and thinner toward the poles, in 

 the less happy climes where returning frosts often destroy the opening 

 buds of spring or the ripening fruits of autumn.' 



" But even in a smaller compass, on a smaller field, striking diffe- 

 rences occur, and facts familiar to every educated person mark the 

 existence of some regulating influence even within the limits of the 

 smallest of the continents of the world. We cultivate the grape in 

 England, but it is only in favoured spots, and then even not with cer- 

 tainty, that it will ripen properly in the open air ; yet but a little 



