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‘ yee e@ects of particular — ions of climate and “soil ‘Apon vegeta- 
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[300]. ces : . 3 : 
DOCUMENT NO. 4. 
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
Last of ee er sas economical plants.—-List of agricultural plants of 
Cuba ; at importance to the agricultural community of t 
0 
United States in " nenveol and “4 Florida and the southern States-in 
ie ticular. 
; 
‘Modbe this head is to be considered the manner in which plants are 
: affected by climate or station, and the conditions under which. particular 
for rms of Gemie are confined to certain zones of. ait as the > 
pages to the tropics, the true pines to extra- -tropical r 
1is is one of the most curions ane difficult iobieciee with which we can 
occupy ourselves. It embraces a consideration of the Eoaamiitipn of the 
atmosphere, and geological eirsieterra 2 all parts of the globe ; of th 
Sie 
: 
ce} 
volves. abe ng ase of the plan upon. which: the world was originally © 
clothed with verdure ; and, a s Humboldt most truly observes, it is closely 
connected with “the physiol condition of the world in general. Upon the 
predominance of certain families of plants in particular districts depend the ~ 
character of the country, and the whole face of: “Dature. Abundance of — 
Seg forming vast savannahs, or of palms, y conifers, have pr 
impor rtant ects upon the social state of the people, me natur 
manners, and the degree of developineni: of the Ae of industr 
nt we examine the surface of the globe, we shall find its vegetatio 
ing according to» its inequalities and its differences of soil > we. ull see 
that the plants of the valleys are not those of. the mountain, nor those +7 : 
the marsh like the vegetables of the river or of ery grounds : ; it will also — 
be seen that the vegetation of all valleys, all sige ea m arshes, or rivers, 
has a similar character in the same latitudes. The flora of the granitic . 
untains of Spain and Portugal is very diferent 3 that of the caleare- 
ous mountains of the same kingdoms; in Switzerland. Teucrium monta- 
num a ways jédiates a Caleareous soil; and the same may be said of cer- 
tain orchises, ustulata, and hircina, for instance, in our own count Hence 
‘it is inferred, that the differences in the character of vegetation depend up- 
ove circumstances connected with the soil or atmosphere i in which the 
A great deal of ingenious discussion upon this matter will be found 
4 “De Beatle’. article on bot: anical geography, published jn the 18th , 
volume of the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelle 
But as I do not ohserve much that can be called: si ositive deductions from ; 
such facts as have been ascertained, 1 shall, without e i be, 
tions as to the causes why one description of plan 
and others in another, confine m to n exposition of brie mere facts 
which appear to have been hiherte distinctly ascertained. 
*So the character of the Mabey in — 
small cultivators, and of 
ical Florida will _uitimately create a very dense 
popu 
which wil er eXcessive over. 
eulture o) of manufactures. 
rradan or ruinous rivalry, in a single Branch of 
