SYSTEMS OP BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION. 



171 



large proportion of the others, helong to it. The 

 summits of the Penine chain, the hills in the 

 lake counties, and the high ranges in Wales 

 being the exceptions. 



From the wide surface which it occupies, the 

 woody region necessarily presents much difference 

 at its two extremes, particularly in the minor 

 details; yet, on the whole, there is more of same- 

 ness in its general features than might be anti- 

 cipated. From one end to the other it is an 

 undulated plain of meadows, pastures, and cul- 

 tivated fields, separated from each other by hedge- 

 rowsof ha wthornorstone walls; and thicklyinter- 

 spersed with parks, woods, gardens, towns, and 

 high roads, betokening a climate where man 

 may attain a high state of civilization, and live 

 for ease and pleasure as well as for laborious oc- 

 cupation. It is the region where flourish the 

 tr«es and bloom the flowers rendered classic by 

 our poets. It is the land of the daisy and cow- 

 slip, the oak and the hawthorn, the hazel copse, 

 and the woodbine bower; the region of fruits 

 and flowers. 



The Agricultural 2kme is distinguished from 

 the upland by the presence of wheat fields, and 

 indeed this grain may be reckoned the charac- 

 teristic of the zone. The highest elevation at 

 which wheat is cultivated in the north of England, 

 does not exceed 1000 feet. In Scotland fi-om 

 800 to 1000 feet. Here the fruits of Britain 

 flourish in greatest perfection, as well as all our 

 finest and most delicate garden produce. 



The Upland Zone. In sheltered situations 

 with a favourable aspect, the oak, beech, wild- 

 cherry, ash, sycamore, and lime, still form fine 

 timber trees; and the lilac, laburnum, montlily 

 rose, and corchorus, flourish in the gardens. 

 Apples, cherries, and currants, ripen; but the 

 peach, plum, and apricot, will not do in the open 

 air. The Scotch fir flourishes as well as the 

 birch, rowan, and trembling poplar. In sheltered 

 vallies, and by the borders of lakes, com fields 

 are found, and most of the common weeds and 

 larger grasses. 



2. Barren region. Black swamps and cheer- 

 less moors make up this region. The dwarf 

 birch, bog myrtle, juniper, and the heaths, com- 

 pose the principal part of the woody plants. 

 The cloud berry is one of the few fruits. Its 

 lower subdivision or moorland zone, stiU exhibits 

 traces of some flowers and flowering shrubs, as 

 the alpine arbutus, the broom, and furze, and 

 the digitalis, or fox-glove. 



The subalpine zone or upper division, assumes 

 a still more bairen aspect; stinted shrubs and 

 heaths, mosses and lichens, being the sole vege- 

 tation. 



3. The Mossy region is destitute of shrubs, 

 and is characterised by the cryptogamic plants, 

 a few weeds, grasses, and saxifrages. Its alpine 

 zone gi-adually passes into the snow line, con- 



Btitnting the snowy zone, where all vegetation 

 is repressed by perpetual congelation.* 



CHAP. XXIII. 



SYSTBMS OF BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION. 



When the sciences were as yet in their infancy, 

 and when all that was known of them consisted 

 of but a small number of facts, those who de- 

 voted themselves to their cultivation required 

 but very little exertion, and a tolerable memory, 

 to enable them to embrace the entire knowledge, 

 and retain the nlmesof the objects, in the study 

 of which they were engaged. The first philoso- 

 phers who treated of botany speak of plants 

 without adopting any order or methodical ar- 

 rangement. In the time of Theophrastus, who 

 first wrote particularly on vegetables, the func- 

 tions of the organs were misunderstood, the 

 genera and species were entirely confounded, 

 and their distinctive characters were unknown. 

 For although that philosopher may be said to 

 have been the first who wrote on botany, it may 

 also be said that, in his time, the science had no 

 real existence. The characters of plants rested 

 merely on empirical knowledge, or on simple 

 tradition ; for their number was then so limited, 

 that it was easy to know them all individually, 

 without its being necessary to distinguish them 

 otherwise than by imposing a particular name 

 upon each, with which, however, no idea of 

 character or comparison was connected. Such 

 was the state of botany during many ages, 

 when, from its intimate connection with medi- 

 cine, it found a place only in the works of those 

 who wrote on the healing art. But when, in 

 consequence of more judicious inquiries, and of 

 journeys made to distant countries, the number 

 of objects belonging to natural history was in- 

 creased, it became necessary to employ more pre- 

 cision in naming these different objects, and to 

 distinguish them by characters of some kind, 

 that they might be more easily recognised. In a 

 short time, the memory was unable to retain the 

 names of the numerous objects which accumu- 

 lated, and which were mostly new, and previously 

 unknown. 



At this period, naturalists began to be sensible 

 of the necessity of arranging objects in some 

 order, which might facilitate research, by fur- 

 nishing the means of arriving more readily, and 

 with more certainty, at the names which had 

 been given to them individually. But the ar- 

 rangements followed were at first entirely em- 



* In Plate II. the mountain on the left represents 

 the British distribution of plants, numbered according 

 to the above description. 



