INTRODUCTION 11 



part of the science, however, cannot be further touched 

 on here. We shall only be able to concern ourselves 

 with plants now living. 



Lastly, we have Geographical Botany, from which 

 we learn the parts of the world in which the different 

 kinds of plants grow wild, or, in other words, their 

 distribution in space. This teaches us, for example, 

 the very uniform character of alpine vegetation in 

 all parts of the world ; the peculiarities of the Flora 1 

 of oceanic islands, deserts, and so on. This also leads 

 to very important conclusions, especially when we 

 study the distribution of a plant in relation to its 

 structure and mode of life. We shall call attention 

 to the distribution of our various types, but this part 

 of Botany cannot be pursued far without a much 

 wider knowledge of plants than is aimed at in this 

 book. 



After these introductory considerations, we will 

 now go on at once to our first type. 



1 By the Flora of a country \ve mean all the plants which grow wild 

 there, collectively. 



