OF PLANTS. 239 



progress from Asia Minor to Lapland. Here was a 

 problem stated, and eagerly was the solution sought for. 

 Adanson, not less distinguished than Tournefort, first 

 expressed the fact that the Umbelliferous plants seldom 

 or never occur within the tropics ; and thus was another 

 question raised, which also awaited its answer. In the 

 year 1807 appeared Hurnboldt's " Essai sur la Geographic 

 des Plant es" wherein he sought to bring the observed 

 peculiarities in the distribution of vegetables into connection 

 with the specialities of climate. But it was ten years later, 

 after the mass of facts had a second time been heaped up, 

 without men knowing how to make anything really new 

 out of them, when Humboldt made the last step ; compre- 

 hending the whole earth in one intelligent glance, he made 

 the Geography of Plants part of a theory of the earth, and 

 showed the dependance of the distribution of plants, on a 

 great scale as on a small, upon the physical qualities of the 

 globe. But by this there was no Science perfected, merely 

 its foundation laid ; it had acquired a determinate point of 

 departure, but what its final aim shall be is at present 

 difficult, even where it is possible to unfold. At least, it 

 is very easy to point out, in certain instances, that fully 

 half the phenomena give as yet no hint, whence, from 

 what circle of natural laws, the grounds of their explanation 

 are to be drawn. 



No Oranges grow on this side the Alps. The Grape 

 does not ripen beyond the latitude of Berlin. In Schoonen, 

 and in the most southern point of Norway, the Beech attains 

 its most northern habitation. From Bjornoe, northward of 

 Drontheim, a line extends across Norway, through Jamt- 

 knd and Herjedalen, which intersects the east coast of 

 Sweden at the most northern part of Gefleborg, and is the 

 boundary beyond which the cultivation of Wheat cannot be 



