4 TIEWS OF NATURE. 



tribes, and is situated between the Don, the Volga, the 

 Caspian Sea, and the Chinese Lake of Dsaisang, and which 

 consequently extends over an area of nearly 2,800 geogra- 

 phical miles. The vegetation of the Asiatic Steppes, which are 

 sometimes hilly and interspersed with pine forests, is in its 

 groupings far more varied than that of the Llanos and the 

 Pampas of Caracas and Buenos Ayres. The more beautiful 

 portions of the plains, inhabited by Asiatic pastoral tribes, are 

 adorned with lowly shrubs of luxuriant white-blossomed Rosa- 

 ces, Crown Imperials (Fritillariae), Cypripedese, and Tulips. 

 As the torrid zone is in general distinguished by a tendency 

 in the vegetable forms to become arborescent, so we also find, 

 that some of the Asiatic Steppes of the temperate zone are 

 characterized by the remarkable height to which flowering 

 plants attain ; as, for instance, Saussureee, and other Synan- 

 thereae ; all siliquose plants, and particularly numerous species 

 of Astragalus. On crossing the trackless portions of the herb- 

 covered Steppes in the low carriages of the Tartars, it is 

 necessary to stand upright in order to ascertain the direction 

 to be pursued through the copse-like and closely crowded 

 plants that bend under the wheels. Some of these Steppes 

 are covered with grass; others with succulent, evergreen, 

 articulated alkaline plants ; while many are radiant with the 

 effulgence of lichen-like tufts of salt, scattered irregularly 

 over the clayey soil like newly fallen snow. 



These Mongolian and Tartar Steppes, which are intersected 

 by numerous mountain chains, separate the ancient and long- 

 civilized races of Thibet and Hindostan from the rude nations 

 of Northern Asia. They have also exerted a manifold influence 

 on the changing destinies of mankind. They have inclined 

 the current of population southward, impeded the intercourse 

 of nations more than the Himalayas, or the Snowy Mountains 

 of Sirinagur and Gorka, and placed permanent limits to the 

 progress of civilization and refinement in a northerly direction. 



History cannot, however, regard the plains of Central Asia 



