850 COSMOS. 



the north of Asia as far as the latitudes of Berlin and Ham- 

 burg, a fact of which Ehrenberg and myself have spoken in 

 other works.* 



The groi ping or association of different vegetable species, 

 to which we are accustomed to apply the term Flwas, do riot 

 appear to me, from what I have observed in different portions 

 of the earth's surface, to manifest such a predominance of in- 

 dividual families as to justify us in marking the geographical 

 distinctions between the regions of the Umbeilatse, of the So- 

 Mdaginee, of the Labiatse, or the ScitaminesD. With reference 

 to this subject, my views differ from those of several of my 

 friends, who rank among the most distinguished of the bota- 

 nists of Germany. The character of the floras of the elevated 

 plateaux of Mexico, New Granada, and Quito, of European 

 Russia, and of Northern Asia, consists, in my opinion, not so 

 much in the relatively larger number of the species presented 

 by one or two natural families, as in the more complicated 

 relations of the coexistence of many families, and in the rela- 

 live numerical value of their species. The Graminea3 and 

 the Cyperaces) undoubtedly predominate in nieadow lands 

 and steppes, as do Coniferse, Cupuliferse, and Betulinese in our 

 northern woods ; but this predominance of certain forms is 

 only apparent, and owing to the aspect imparted by the social 

 plants. The north of Europe, and that portion of Siberia 

 which is situated to the north of the Altai Mountains, have 

 no greater right to the appellation of a region of Graminea? 

 and Coniferae than have the boundless llanos between the 

 Orinoco and the mountain chain of Caraccas, or the pine for- 

 ests of Mexico. It is the coexistence of forms which may par- 

 tially replace each other, and their relative numbers and as- 

 sociation, which give rise either to the general impression of 

 luxuriance arid diversity, or of poverty and uniformity in the 

 contemplation of the vegetable world. 



In this fragmentary sketch of the phenomena of organiza- 

 tion, I have ascended from the simplest cellf the first mani- 

 festation of life progressively to higher structures. " Th* 



* Ehrenberg, iu the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, t. xxi., p. 387 

 412; Humboltlt, Asie Centrale, t. i., p. 339-342, and t. iii., p. 96-101 



t Schleiden, Ueber die Entwicktungsweise der Fjlanzenzetien, in MliJ 

 l<-rs Arckiv fur Anatomic iind Physiologic, 1838, s. 137-17G; also hi 

 Grundzuge der wissenschnftlichen Botanik, th. i., s. 191, and th. ii., s 

 11. Schwann, Mikroscopische Untersnchungcn uber die UebfKr.sfim- 

 r>mng in der Struktur iind dem IVachsthxm der Thiere vnd Pflanzen^ 

 1839, s. 45, 220. Compare also, on similar propagation, Job. Mii'ler, 

 rhytiolosfie des Menschen, 1810 th. ii.. s G14. 



