MAN AND NATURE. 297 



not merely of the products of animal and vegetable 

 growth, but in many cases of the animals and plants 

 producing them. We shall speedily notice some of 

 the more striking examples of this ; saying a few 

 words meanwhile on the other modes in which Man ex- 

 ercises influence on the amount and physical characters 

 of the living world around him. 



We have already, indeed, following our author's 

 propositions, spoken of this influence as applied to 

 the forests of different continents and countries ; and 

 need not recur to this topic further than by noting how 

 much has been done, and may yet be done, by multi- 

 plying particular trees and plants, in special soils and 

 for special objects. The forest trees, on the large scale, 

 are left to shift for themselves ; but the mulberry, the 

 olive, the vine, the orange, the cacao, and many others, 

 require and receive more of human culture and selec- 

 tion to aid their increase and ameliorate their produce. 

 The same may be said generally of all fruits and escu- 

 lent vegetables. We find in Gerard's ' Herbal ' (1596) 

 the names of several plants now not seen in our English 

 fields or gardens. Those which remain are multiplied 

 and their varieties selected for culture in proportion to 

 their value ; while of plants that are useless or noxious 

 the extirpation is carried on as far as nature permits 

 it, and most largely in countries well peopled and 

 advanced in civilisation. 



As with the vegetable so with the animal world. 

 Man can rarely extirpate a species, though natural 

 causes sometimes do so ; and on a vast scale, if we 

 take prior ages and fossil species into account. But he 



