PARI U0 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 
Lixnxus, whose singular genius foresaw most of the conquests 
reserved for his favourite science—the study of botany—laid the 
foundations of Botanical Geography. In the prolegomenia of 
his “ Flora Laponia,” the immortal Botanist of Upsal says, in the 
poetical and concise style which is peculiar to him: “The dynasty 
of the Palms reigns in the warm regions of the globe; the tropical 
zones are inhabited by whole races of trees and shrubs; a rich 
crown of plants surrounds the plains of southern Europe; armies 
of green Graminee occupy Holland and Denmark; numerous — 
tribes of Mosses are cantonned in Sweden; but the brownish- 
coloured Alge, and the white and grey Lichens, alone vegetate 
in cold and frozen Lapland, the most remote habitable spot of 
earth ; the last of the vegetables alone live on the confines of the 
earth.” 
The modifications in the distribution of plants which Linnzeus 
had observed journeying from south to north, Tournefort had 
already observed during his travels in Armenia, upon the slopes 
of Mount Ararat. At the foot of this mountain he saw the plants 
of Armenia; higher up, he found the plants of Italy; higher up 
still, he found those of the environs of Paris; above these were 
the plants of Sweden; finally, on the borders of eternal snow, 
near the summit of the mountain, he found those of Lapland. 
Buffon had also a glimpse of the laws which apply to the 
distribution of plants. ‘‘ The vegetation which covers the earth,” 
he says, “and which is still more closely attached to it than 
