19'4 SPECIES NOT 



often even the same forms. The naturalists, 

 Banks and Solander, as well as the two Forstns 

 who accompanied Cook in his voyages round 

 the world, and Sparmann, were not a little sur- 

 prised when they found, in the region of Capo 

 Horn, a vegetation similar to that of our northern 

 zone. If we examine the vegetation of the 

 plains, from the extreme north to the torrid 

 zone, we shall find, as we change the latitude, 

 a continual change in the physiognomy of the 

 vegetation; and if, in the torrid zone, we ascend 

 from the level of the sea to the top of the 

 highest mountains, which there often rise above 

 the limit of perpetual snow, we shall find 

 again the same order of changes more or less 

 clearly defined. There in a short time we pass 

 through climates corresponding to those of burn- 

 ing Africa, of the fair lands of the south of 

 Europe, and of frozen Spitzbergen; and as the 

 climate changes with the increasing elevation, 

 so also does the vegetation. The majestic palm 

 and the fruitful banana are not found above 

 the height of seven or eight thousand feet; but 

 near the limit of perpetual snow on these moun- 

 tains we meet with grasses, cyperaceoe, gentians, 

 mid other plants similar to the forms of northern 

 Europe." (On the Geography of Plants, trans- 

 lated by Ray Society, pages 4-5.) 



In commenting upon these facts, M. Meyen very 

 justly observes that some of the causes of this 

 distribution of plants are open to our observation ; 

 as, for example, when a plant from a hot country 



