550 1'IIYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



" It was a cedar tree 



That woke him from the deadly drowsiness; 

 The broad round-spreading branches, when they felt 

 The snow, rose upward in a point to heaven, 

 And, standing in their strength erect, 

 Defied the baffled storm." 



Various magnificent specimens of the cedar of Lebanon have been reared in England, 

 but it has never been found growing wild apart from the Syrian mountains. 



Owing to the exclusive confinement of individual families of plants to particular lo 

 calities, or their predominance there, the globe has been divided into a series of botanical 

 habitations, regions, or provinces, which are named after the most remarkable feature of 

 their vegetation, or characterised by the geographical terms commonly applied to the 

 districts. In the arrangement of Professor Schouw both methods are adopted, but the 

 latter only where a distinct botanical province is surmised, without a sufficient acquaint 

 ance with its productions being possessed to denominate it after those which are most 

 predominant. There are about fifty botanical regions noticed by De Candolle ; forty-eight 

 by Mr. Hinds ; and twenty-two by Professor Schouw. From the latter the following ar 

 rangement is derived : 



1. The region of saxifrages and mosses, or the alpine arctic flora. This region is 

 characterised by the abundance of mosses and lichens ; by the presence of the saxifrages, 

 and gentians, chickweed tribe, sedges, willows ; by the total absence of tropical families, and 

 a marked decrease of the forms peculiar to the temperate zone, of the forests of firs and 

 birches, and an absence of other forests. It is also distinguished by the small number of 

 annual plants, the prevalence of perennial species, and by a greater liveliness in their 

 simple colours. The region is divided into two provinces : 1. The province of the 

 Carices, or the Arctic Flora, which comprehends all the countries within the polar circle, 

 with some parts of America, Europe, and Asia, which ai*e to the south of it ; more espe 

 cially Lapland, the north of Russia, Siberia, Kamschatka, New Britain, Canada, Labrador, 

 Greenland, and the mountains of Scotland and Scandinavia. The Laplander combs and 

 dresses some species of carex, as we do flax, and in winter stuffs his shoes and gloves with 

 it, as a protection against the extreme cold of the climate. 2. The province of Primroses 

 and Rampions, or the Alpine Flora of the south of Europe, which embraces the flora of 

 the Pyrenees, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Savoy, the Apennines, the mountains of Greece, 

 and probably the Spanish mountains. 



2. The region of the umbelliferous and cruciferous plants, to which the hemlock, 

 parsley, wall-flower, and cresses belong. These tribes are here in much greater number 

 than in any other region. Roses, crowfoots, amentaceous and coniferous plants are also 

 very numerous. The abundance of carices, and the fall of the leaves of almost all the 

 trees during winter, form, also, chief features of this division. It may be separated 

 into two distinct provinces: 1. The province of the cichoracece, including the sow- 

 thistle, dandelion, and lettuce, which embraces all the north of Europe, not comprehended 

 in the preceding region, namely, Britain, the north of France, the Netherlands, Germany, 

 Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and the greater part of European Russia. 2. The province 

 of the astragali, and cynarocephala, to which the milkvetch, burdock, and thistle belong, 

 which includes a part of Asiatic Russia, and the countries about the Caucasian moun 

 tains. 



3. The region of the labiate, and caryophillce, to which the pink, catch-fly, and sand- 

 worts belong, or the Mediterranean flora. It is distinguished by the abundance of the 

 plants belonging to these two orders. Some tropical families are also met with, such as 

 palms, laurels, arums, plants yielding balsam and turpentine, grasses belonging to the 



