27-2 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



brambles, and a crowd of genera believed to belong only to countries of the north. 

 Thus the inhabitant of the equinoctial regions views all the vegetable forms which nature 

 has bestowed around him on the globe. Earth developes to his eyes a spectacle as 

 varied as the azure vault of heaven, which conceals none of her constellations." The 

 people of Europe do not enjoy the same advantage. The languishing plants, which the 

 love of science or luxury cultivates in our hot-houses, present only the shadow of the 

 majesty of equinoctial vegetation ; but, by the richness of our language, we paint these 

 countries to the imagination, and cultivated man feels a happiness peculiar to civilisation. 



1773. The features of many plants are so obvious and characteristic, as to strike every 

 general observer. The Scitamineae, tree-heaths, firs and pines. Mimosas, climbers, Cacti, 

 grasses, lichens, mosses, palms, ^quisetaceae, 3/alvaceae, ^roideae, Orchideaj, iiliaceae, 

 &c., form remarkable groups distinguishable at first sight. Of these groups, the most 

 beautiful are the palms, Scitamineae, and iiliaceae, which include the bamboos and plan- 

 tains, the most splendid of umbrageous plants. 



1774. The native countries of plcCnts may often he discovered by their features, in the 

 same manner as the national distinctions which are observable in the looks and colour of 

 mankind, and which are effected chiefly by climate. Asiatic plants are remarkable for 

 their superior beauty ; African plants for their thick and succulent leaves, as in the case 

 of the Cacti ; and American plants for the length and smoothness of their leaves, and for 

 a sort of singularity in the shape of the flower and fruit. The flowers of European 

 plants are but rarely beautiful, a great portion of them being amentaceous. Plants 

 indigenous to polar and mountainous regions are generally low, with small compressed 

 leaves ; but with flowers large in proportion. Plants indigenous to New Holland are 

 distinguishable by small and dry leaves, which have often a shrivelled appearance. In 

 Arabia they are low atid dwarfish ; in the Archipelago they are generally shrubby and 

 furnished with prickles ; while, in the Canary Islands, many plants, which, in other 

 countries, are merely herbs, assume the port of shrubs and trees. The shrubby plants of 

 the Cape of Good Hope and New Holland exhibit a striking similarity. The shrubs and 

 trees of the northern parts of Asia and America also are very much alike ; which may be 

 exemplified in the Platanus orientalis of the former, and in the Platanus occidentalis of the 

 latter, as well as in J^agus sylv^tica and Fagus latifolia, or ^^cer cappadbcium and ^'^cer 

 saccharinum ; and yet the herbs and undershrubs of the two countries do not in the least 

 correspond. " A tissue of fibres," Humboldt observes, " more or less loose, vegetable 

 colours more or less vivid, according to the chemical mixture of their elements, and the 

 force of the solar rays, are some of the causes which impress on the vegetables of each 

 zone their characteristic features." 



1775. The influence of the general aspect of vegetation on the taste and imagination of a 

 people; the difference in this respect between the monotonous oak and pine forests 

 of the temperate zones, and the picturesque assemblages of palms, mimosas, plantains, 

 and bamboos of the tropics ; the influence of the nourishment, more or less stimulant, 

 peculiar to different zones, on the character and energy of the passions ; these, Humboldt 

 observes, unite the history of plants with the moral and political history of man. 



Sect. V. Systematic Distribution of Vegetables. 



1776. The distribution of plants, considered in respect to their systematic classifications, 

 is worthy of notice. The three grand systematic divisions of plants are Acotyledoneae, 

 Dicotyledoneae, and Monocotyledoneae. A simplification of this division considers plants 

 as agamous or phanerogamous, that is, without or with visible sexes. 



1777. Plants of visible sexes. Taking the globe in zones, the temperate contain the 

 greater part of all the phanerogamous or visible sexual species of plants. The equinoctial 

 countries contain nearly i, and Lapland only ^ part. 



1778. Plants with the "sexual parts invisible or indistinct. Taking the whole surface 

 of the globe, the agamous plants, that is, Afusci, Pungi, Fnci, &c., are to the phane- 

 rogamous or perfect plants, nearly as 1 to 7 ; in the equinoctial countries as 1 to 5 ; in 

 the temperate zones, as 2 to 5 ; in New Holland, as 2 to II ; in France, as 1 to 2 ; in 

 Lapland, Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland, they are as 1 to 1, or even more numerous 

 than the phanerogamous plants. Within the tropics, agamous plants grow only on the 

 summits of the highest mountains. In several of the islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 having a Flora of phanerogamous plants exceeding 200 species, R. Brown did not ob- 

 serve a single moss. 



1779. In the whole globe, the Monocotyledonece, including the Gramineas, iililiceae, 

 Scitamineae, &c., are to the whole of the perfect plants as 1 to 6 ; in the temperate zones 

 (between 36 "" and 52,) as one to 4 ; and in the polar regions as 1 to 20. In Germany, 

 the Monocotyledoneae are to the total number of species as 1 to 4^ ; in France as 1 to 

 4| ; in New Holland the three grand divisions of plants, beginning wdth the Acotyle- 

 doneae, are nearly as 1, 2|, and 1^. 



1780. Dicotyledonece. In the whole globe, the Monocotyledoneae are estimated bj 



