Decbmber 6, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



IQl 



less advanced than that we know they en- 

 joyed at the Conquest. 



Briefer is the report of Mr. Theobert 

 Maler of his many years explorations of 

 the ruined cities of the peninsula. It is 

 published, with numerous photographic re- 

 productions, in the Globus for October. 

 Some of the ruins he visited have been 

 previously unknown, and present architec- 

 tural details of a higher order than any 

 yet described. 



Finally, though by no means of least im- 

 portance, is an essay by Prof. W. H. 

 Holmes, of the Columbian Museum, Chi- 

 cago. It is the result of personal studies 

 of various ruined cities last winter, and I 

 may speak of it from a sight of the proofs. 

 The author portrays with consummate skill 

 the development of Mayan architecture, 

 and solves many problems with reference 

 to it which have hitherto remained obscure. 

 D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPSY {XX.). 

 THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 



The manner in which the distribution of 

 plants and animals should be treated in the 

 study of physical geography is a vexed 

 question. The preference of the writer 

 would be to leave the actual distribution of 

 species to botany and zoology, and to intro- 

 duce in geographical study only such ex- 

 amples of distribution as shall illuminate 

 the control exercised over plant and animal 

 life by the forms of land and water and by 

 the physical conditions of climate ; or such 

 other examples as shall illustrate the inter- 

 dependence of plants, animals and man, in 

 the savage state of local supply or in the civ- 

 ilized state of extended exchange. Classifica- 

 tions of plants and animals, such as appear 

 in certain text-books on physical geography, 

 are quite out of place ; even faunal and 

 flora areas are not, as such, proper geo- 

 graphical subjects, but belong in zoology 



and botany. In a word, when a plant or 

 animal, or the area of its occurrence, is the 

 object of study, the discipline is biological ; 

 when the forms of land or water, or the 

 conditions of climate which control the 

 growth or distribution of a plant or animal 

 is the object of study, the discipline is geo- 

 graphical. The great variety and number 

 of plants and animals encouraged to grow 

 in the luxurious belt of the equatorial rains, 

 or the sparsity of individuals and the spe- 

 cialized forms and colors of plants and ani- 

 mals that struggle to survive in the trade 

 wind deserts, are examples of geographical 

 themes ; the particular characteristics of 

 these various plants and animals, and their 

 systematic relationship to the inhabitants 

 of other regions, are examples of biological 

 themes. 



PLANTS OF THE ALPINE REGION. 



The peculiar forms assumed by plants of 

 the Alpine region, offeringexcellent material 

 for truly geographical study as defined in 

 the preceding note, are described enter- 

 tainingly by G. Bonnier ( Les plantes de la 

 region alpine, et leurs rapports avec le cli- 

 mat. Ann. de geogr., Paris, iv. 1895, 393- 

 413). The plants are dwarfed, the stalks 

 are low, the leaves are close to the gi-ound in 

 rosettes or tufts, the roots are large in pro- 

 portion to the stalks and leaves ; new indi- 

 viduals are often propagated from runners, 

 so that the ripening of seeds need not be 

 depended on. Growth begins before the 

 snow of winter entirely disappears, and 

 during the short summer advance is made 

 rapidly to maturity ; different phases of 

 growth being abbreviated and their succes- 

 sion accelerated . While accounts of these pe- 

 culiar features are used to intensify the ap- 

 preciation of the average temperature of the 

 Alpine region, of the long-continued pres- 

 ence of its snow cover and of the brevity of 

 its open summer, they properly belong un- 

 der geography ; but when they are followed 



