GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



553 



A Pine Forest. 



at Drontheim in Norway ; but in the eastern parts of Europe, the monarch of the woods 

 is not found higher than 57^ ; and in the eastern parts of Asia, the oak is only able to 

 maintain a precarious existence on the banks of the Argouan, in the same latitude as 

 London. Elm and lime trees are found at 61 in Europe, the beech at 59, in connec- 

 tion with most of the vegetable productions which are important to the sustenance of 

 mankind. Rye is cultivable with advantage as far north as 66 ; wheat is limited to 

 62 ; and oats will rarely ripen in a higher latitude In the northern half of the 

 temperate zone, the fruit-trees of the garden and orchard, the gooseberry, apple, pear, 

 cherry, and plum, attain their greatest perfection, losing their flavour, and degenerating 

 entirely in warmer regions. In the midland portion of this district, the vine, apricot, 

 peach, almond, and mulberry flourish ; and farther to the south is the country of the 

 olive, orange, lemon, cork, and fig. To the westward of Milan, we first meet with fields 

 of rice, yielding a whispering sound when agitated by the wind, a plant which can only 

 be raised where there is a plentiful supply of water, an advantage enjoyed by the whole 

 plain of Lombardy, in consequence of an admirable system of artificial irrigation, which 

 the physical condition of the country favours. The flora of the region thus summarily 

 passed over exhibits exquisite specimens of form and colour, but, perhaps, in successful 

 competition with its floral developments, or with those of equatorial districts, we may 

 place the vivid green of its grasses, trees, and hedgerows, under the reviving touch of 

 spring. Corresponding latitudes in the western hemisphere present vegetable produc- 

 tions of great splendour, together with the careful cultivation of the more useful orders, 

 as in the rice, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and sugar-cane plantations. 



It is in the glowing regions of the torrid zone that vegetation exhibits its greatest 

 variety, and presents productions more splendid in their colours and stately in their form, 

 more fragrant in their odours and pungent in their taste, than any other climate. 

 Wheat, and most other kinds of European corn, will not form an ear upon the low levels 

 of these hot districts, and are only to be cultivated with success within the tropics, at an 

 altitude of from five to nine thousand feet above the level of the ocean, where the mode- 



