SYSTEMATIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 19 



Geographical Botany can hardly be said to have had 

 iny scientific status anterior to the publication of the 

 Origin of Species.' The way had been paved, how- 

 ever, by A. de Candolle and the well-known essay of 

 dward Forbes ' On the Distribution of the Plants 

 ind Animals of the British Isles,' by Sir J. Hooker's 

 ntroductory essay to the ' Flora of New Zealand,' and 

 y Hooker and Thomson's introductory essay to the 

 Flora Indica.' One result of these researches has been 

 o give the coup-de-grace to the theory of an Atlantis, 

 lastly, in a lecture delivered to the Geographical 

 society in 1878, Thiselton Dyer himself has summed 

 p the present state of the subject, and contributed an 

 mportant addition to our knowledge of plant-distribu- 

 ion by showing how its main features may be ex- 

 lained by migration in latitude from north to south 

 vithout recourse being had to a submerged southern 

 ontinent for explaining the features common to South 

 Africa, Australia, and America. 



The fact that systematic and geographical botany 

 ave claimed a preponderating share of the attention of 

 British phytologists, is no doubt in great measure due 

 the ever-expanding area of the British Empire, and 



rich botanical treasures which we are continually 

 sceiving from India and our numerous colonies. The 

 3ries of Indian and Colonial Floras, published under 

 le direction of the authorities at Kew, and the ' Genera 

 'lantaruin ' of Bentham and Hooker, are certainly an 

 onour to our country. To similar causes we may 

 race the rise and rapid progress of economic botany, 

 :> which the late Sir W. Hooker so greatly contri- 

 uted. 



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