EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION o FORESTS. 4s 



where two thousand years ago no cherry ripened ; but on 

 the other hand, those lands where the dense population of 

 the Jews was nourished by a fruitful culture are in the 

 present day half deserts. The cultivation of clover, 

 requiring a moist atmosphere, has passed from Greece to 

 Italy, from thence to Southern Germany, and already is 

 beginning to fly from the continually drier summers there 

 to be confined to the rnoister north. Rivers which formerly 

 scattered their blessings with equal fulness throughout the 

 whole year, now leave the dry and thirsty bed to split and 

 gape in summer, while in spring they suddenly pour out 

 masses of snow, accumulated in winter, over the dwelling- 

 places of affrighted men. If the continued clearing and 

 destruction of forests is at first followed by greater warmth, 

 more southern climate, and more luxuriant thriving of the 

 more delicate plants, yet it draws close behind this desir- 

 able condition another which restrains the habitability of 

 a region within as narrow, and perhaps even narrower, 

 limits than before. In Egypt no Pythagoras need now 

 forbid his scholars to live upon the beans ; long has that 

 land been incapable of producing them. The wine of 

 Mendes and Mareotis, which inspired the guests of 

 Cleopatra which was celebrated even by Horace it grows 

 no more. No assassin now finds the holy pine-grove of 

 Poseidon, in which to hide and lie in ambush for the 

 singers hastening to the feast. The pine has long since 

 retired from the invading desert climate to the heights of 

 the Arcadian Mountains. Where are the pastures now, 

 where are the fields around the holy citadel of Dardanus, 

 which at the foot of the richly-watered Ida supported 

 three thousand mares? Who can talk now of the 

 " Xanthus," with its hurrying waters ? Who would under- 

 stand now the " Argos feeder of horses ?" ' 



In view of this waste Schleiden writes, if not in the 

 words, yet following the train of thought of one of the 

 noblest veterans of our science, the venerable Elias Fries, of 

 Lund : ' A broad band of waste land follows gradually in 

 the steps of cultivation. If it expands, its centre and cradle 



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