ON BOTANICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Mrs. B. It is a science of very recent date ; indeed, 

 it is only within the last few years, that it has been culti- 

 vated wtih any degree of success. It is founded entire- 

 ly on the distinction made between the habitation and 

 the station of plants. 



Caroline. I do not understand what you mean by this 

 distinction. Are there two modes of indicating the 

 country of a plant and the spot in which it grows ? 



Mrs. B. Precisely so. For instance, when you say 

 that the tulip-tree grows in America, you point out what, 

 in botany, is called its habitation; when you say that it 

 grows in marshy districts, you intimate its station. Thus, 

 the term habitation relates to the geographical distribu- 

 tion of plants on the face of the globe, while station de- 

 notes the peculiar localities in which they are generally 

 found. 



Emily. I understand your meaning perfectly ; but I 

 cannot conceive that any degree of importance can be 

 attached to this distinction. 



Mrs. B. I will explain it. You will readily admit that 

 the nature of the soil, the aspect, the degree of moisture, 

 &-C., is sufficient to account for particular plants growing 

 in certain spots rather than in others. Their station is 

 thus explained by physical laws, with which we are more 

 or less acquainted. The causes of their habitation are, 

 on the contrary, perfectly unknown to us. Were you, 

 for instance, to find in America (a circumstance not at 

 all improbable) a marshy district, perfectly similar both 

 in regard to temperature, moisture, and the nature of its 

 soil, to another marshy district in Europe, the two marsh- 

 es would be peopled with plants of a very different de- 

 scription. The cause of'this singular phenomenon ap- 

 pears, therefore, to have existed prior to the actual state 

 of the globe, and is consequently impossible to explain. 



Emily. It is true that the tulip-tree, of which you 

 were just speaking, grows very well when transplanted to 

 Europe ; and I have heard that our walnut-trees thrive 

 equally well in America : but neither of these trees grow 



1487. On what is the science of botanical geography founded 1 

 1488. What explanation is given of the use of the terms, habitation and 

 etation, in botanyl 1489. Emily says she does not understand the 

 propriety of this distinction what further explanation of station is given! 

 1490. And what further is said of habitation 1 1491. What is said 

 of transplanting the tulip-tree'? 



