PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



INTRODUCTION 



THE recognised masterpieces of human art, whether in 

 oainting or in sculpture, are, almost all of them, repre- 

 sentations of the human form. Most of the loveliest 

 scenes of natural beauty, on the other hand, owe a large 

 proportion of then: charm to the aspects of plant life. 

 he dark forest of northern pines, the crimson of the 

 pen heath, the willows by the stream, the gay meadow 

 Blossoms surrounded by Alpine snows, the slender, 

 taceful palms of the tropics, or the tangled jungles 

 the equator have in this respect almost their only 

 /als in the grandeur of bare mountain peaks with their 

 ^rennial snows, and in the ever -changing hues of ocean. 

 , The art of the painter and the many modern books 

 f travel have made the most stay-at-home among us 

 amiliar with the fact that the vegetation of one land 

 is widely different from that of another. Even those 

 without the wide knowledge of Macaulay's schoolboy 

 know something of the absence of plant-life in the 

 frozen North ; of the stunted vegetation of the only less 

 permanently frozen tundra; of the date palms of the 

 African oases, the giant cone-bearing trees of western 

 North America, the gum trees of Australia, and the 

 rope-like lianas and the orchids on the boughs of the 

 many huge trees in the steaming atmosphere of what 

 is termed the " zone of constant precipitation." Now 

 that the Swiss Alps have become recognised as the 

 olayground of Europe, many who have seldom, if ever, 

 ;iven a thought to such a subject as botanical geography 

 aust have noticed the gradual disappearance of the 

 yild and cultivated trees and other plants of the valley 

 s the ascent of a mountain is made, firs succeeding 

 he oaks, chestnuts, and walnuts, until the upper limit 

 f all trees is reached, and ultimately only a few lichens 

 over the rocks near the line of perpetual snow. 



