374 X GENERAL REMARKS. 



English word in its simple form. The practical uncer- 

 tainty of the distinctions so laid down, is shown in the 

 fact of M. De CandoUe adopting one of them as a title 

 for his own grand work which treats ahout hoth ; thus 

 virtually conceding that both may be and are compre- 

 hended under one of the designations. A more recent 

 and anonymous writer, — one of philosophical character 

 in thought, and rather copious in his literary style, — thus 

 amplifies the titular definitions into an explanatory para- 

 graph : — 



" The investigation of the peculiarities of the vegeta- 

 tion of a given country, the relative proportions of the 

 families, genera, species, or individuals it consists of, its 

 relation to the climate, local configuration, and other 

 peculiarities of the region, foi'm a branch of geography to 

 which he appropriately gives the name of botanical geo- 

 graphy ; whilst geographical botany, belonging more par- 

 ticularly to the province of the botanist, and the more 

 special object of the present work, examines the distribu- 

 tion of species, genera, and families over the surface of 

 the globe ; searches after the origin of species, and their 

 migrations, tracing the changes they may have undergone 

 or still undergo, in their dispersion or distribution 

 through the different geological periods they may have 

 witnessed, their increase, diminution, or final extinction." 

 (Edinburgh Eeview, Oct. 1857.) 



This definition is comprehensive ; and it may assist in 

 showing how extensive is the region of research, which 

 men of enlarged thought can find within the confines of 

 botanical science, — how vastly superior the study be- 

 comes, as an intellectual exercise, when thus raised above 

 the limited views of those botanists who can only describe 

 species and specimens, or make unconnected and aimless 

 records of their localities. The anonymous paragraph 



