Y38 EEPOKT — 1881. 



lous caution. Of its numerous valuable and novel features, two claim particular 

 notice, namely, the chapters on the history of cultivated and introduced plants ; 

 and the further development of Humboldt's ' Arithmeticaj Botanices,' by taking 

 into account the sums of temperatures as well as the maxima, minima, and means, 

 in determining the amount of heat required to satisfy all the conditions of a plant's 

 life, at the various periods of its existence, and especially the maturation of its 



S66QS 



Of Mr. Wallace's great work 'The Geographical Distribution of Animals,' I 

 cannot speak with sufficient knowledge of the subject, and can pnly appreciate and 

 echo the high praises accorded to it by zoologists, for its scientific treatment of a 



vast subject. 



The 'Geogi-aphie Botanique' was followed by the late Dr. Grisebach's 'Die 

 Veo'etation der Erde,'^ which contains an admirable summary of the vegetation of 

 the" different regions of the globe as limited by their physical features, divested of 

 all theoretical considerations. 



For the largest treatment in outline of the whole subject of distribution, I must 

 refer to the chapters of Darwin's ' Origin of Species,' which are devoted to it. 



In reference to these and other works, very able and instructive discussions of 

 the principles of geographical distribution are to be found in the presidential 

 addresses delivered before the Liunean Society, in 1869, 1870, and 1872, by the 

 veteran botanist, G. Bentham. 



With Mr. Wallace's 'Island Life' I must conclude this notice, and very 

 fittingly, for besides presenting an admirable account of the origin and migrations 

 of animals and vegetables in oceanic and continental islands, it contains a complete 

 and comprehensive analysis of those past and present conditions of the globe, 

 astronomical, geological, geographical, and biological, which have been the earlier 

 and later directors and controllers of the ever-warring forces of organic nature. _ In 

 thi.s work Mr. Wallace independently advocates the view of the northern origin of 

 both the faunas and floras of the world. 



I conclude with the hope that I have made the subject of the distribution of 

 organic life on the globe interesting to you as geographers, by showing on the one 

 hand how much it owes its advance to the observations made and materials 

 collected by geographical explorers, and on the other how greatly the student of 

 distribution has, by the use he has made of these observations and materials, ad- 

 vanced the science of physical geography. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Eq^uijyment of Exjiloring Expeditions Noiv and Fifhj Years Ago, 

 By Francis Galton, F.B.S. 



The equipment of a modern exploring expedition differs in many respects now 

 from what it was in or about the year 18.30, with the general result of increased 

 efficiency and rapidity of execution. The standard instruments — namely, the theo- 

 dolite the sextant, the chronometer, and the azimuth compass — have not received 

 any great improvements in the interval, and the best of those made in 1830 would 

 be valued now. But they are made more handy and portable than they were, 

 and at much lower cost for equal degrees of excellence. The modern water-tight 

 cover, with the keyless winding arrangement of travellers' watches, is a great 

 boon to them. The mercurial horizon, without which the sextant on land is 

 almost useless for astronomical purposes, has been transformed from a lumbering 

 trough shielded from the wind by a heavy glazed screen, which was difficult to 

 fill and did not admit of the observation of low angles, into a very compact con- 

 vtriyance by Captain George, which is filled by tilting, and is sheltered from the 



1 Published in 1872. Translated into French under the title of Za Vegetation du 

 Glole, by P. de Tchihachef, Paris, 1875. 



