410 Relations between Geological Strata and 
Art. VI. Remarks on the Relation subsisting between Geological 
Strata and the Plants most frequently found growing on their 
superincumbent Soils. By Wi1ti1aAM Tomson, Esq. A.M. 
In per using lately a short but masterly delineation of a 
district in Aberdeenshire, by Dr. Alexander Murray, pub- 
lished in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, I was 
struck with the author" s remarks on one part of ne subject 
particularly, as they bore on some slight observations of my 
own on the same subject. The words are these : — 
“« After these remarks on the face of the country and the 
rocks, I wish to observe, that not unfrequently I have endea- 
voured to discover whether, in the comparatively limited tract 
to which the present observations relate, any decided con- 
nection could be traced between the native plants and the 
soils wherein they are found. Few enquiries are more inviting ; 
and the opinion that a connection of this kind exists has, at 
least, a plausible appearance: but, after some attentive con- 
sideration, I venture to suggest, that there is not in science a 
more hopeless labour than. the attempt to discover an unvary- 
ing and necessary relation between most plants and the soils 
Fee ein they grow. I feel convinced that, except in point of 
moistness, compactness, and depth, soils have, in general, no 
cognisable relation to their vegetable products. This opinion 
is, on my part, the result of obser vation; and it appears, when 
well examined, no less to accord with reason than experience. 
Let us survey Britain, for example, and we find the soils in all 
places composed mainly of silica, alumina, magnesia, and lime, 
with accidental animal and vegetable impregnations. Now, is 
it reasonable to expect, that we could, in our present state of 
knowledge, trace a general relation between those few elements 
of soil and the highly diversified vegetable products which are 
indigenous in our island? Or that we should ever extend our 
knowledge so far, so very far beyond our present limits, as to 
enable us to solve the difficult problem in question ?” 
The decided opinion of a naturalist who has shown such 
accuracy of research throughout the paper from which I have 
just quoted, inclines me to ‘regard this opinion as deserving of 
much notice, as well on its own account, as from the com- 
paratively little attention which has ieues to been given by 
botanists to the geography of plants. 
Every ardent lover of nature must indulge a desire to con- 
nect with each other the ereat kingdoms of nature, SO as at 
once to link our studies and to condense our views of divine 
order. I trust, therefore, that future observation will show, 
that, whatever be the simplicity of the elements composing 
