WEIMAR AND JENA. 181 



species ; maps showing the plants that have closely followed in the 

 wake of certain nations ; the general history of agriculture, com- 

 parisons instituted between cultivated plants and domesticated 

 animals, and the probable origin of both ; causes of degeneracy, 

 a catalogue of the plants which adhere most closely to the law 

 of uniformity, and those which deviate from it most readily, the 

 degeneracy of cultivated plants, such as the American and 

 Persian plants, which are wild from the Tagus to the Obi ; the 

 general confusion produced in the geography of plants by 

 colonisation these appear to me to be subjects worthy of 

 thought, though hitherto for the most part neglected. I am 

 incessantly engaged on these subjects, but I am too much 

 distracted by the noise just now about me to explain myself 

 very systematically. I see that in some instances I have ex- 

 pressed myself awkwardly, but I trust that on the whole you 

 will be able to grasp my meaning. 1 



6 Should I be in a position at any future time to send you, 

 my much-esteemed friend, some essays on these subjects as 

 specimens, your approval of them would make me inexpressibly 

 happy ; but anything I can do will, I fear, contrast unfavourably 

 with the contributions you will receive from your other coad- 

 j utors. 



' In the mean time farewell, and may you be as happy as the 

 elevation and purity of your nature is fitted to render you. 

 Kemember me to your amiable wife, and give my love to my 

 brother William, to whom I have not written for an age. 



' Yours, &c., 



' HUMBOLDT.' 



Schiller, delighted at this consent, writes to Korner on 

 September 12, 1794: c Jacobi of Diisseldorf has at length 

 promised to contribute to the " Horen." From Humboldt's 

 brother (Alexander von Humboldt), Superintendent of Mines 

 in Prussia, we may expect some excellent treatises on Nature 

 in her philosophic aspect. He is certainly the most gifted 



1 It is very interesting to compare these remarks with the prospectus of 

 the ' Geographie der Pfianzen ' in Berghaus' ' Hertha/ vol. vii., in ' Geogr. 

 Zeitung/ pp. 52-60, and in the ' Humholdt-Berghaus Briefwechsel,' vol. i. 

 p. 63. 



