522 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
The Middle, Tropical, or Equatorial zone, extends from the 
fifteenth north parallel to the fifteenth degree south latitude. The 
two others are the Tropical zones, properly so called, ranging on 
each side the Equatorial zone up to the twenty-fourth parallel 
north and south. 
The two Temperate zones are contiguous on the one side to the 
Torrid zone, and on the other to the frozen regions of the Pole, 
extending over a space of forty-two degrees of latitude. Like the 
Tropical zones, they present great varieties of climate and of veget- 
able products. ‘These zones we also subdivide in a botanical point 
of view into four secondary zones, namely, the Juxta-tropical, the 
Warm Temperate, the Cold Temperate, and the Arctic zone. The — 
Polar zone comprehends the polar regions, which extend from 
60° to 80° north latitude. 
We shall not follow in our few remarks the order of these 
natural regions, and we feel that the motives for this determina- 
tion are justified by the following remarks of Alphonse de Can- 
dolle. “TI hold,” says the learned Botanist of Geneva, “ I hold the 
divisions of the globe by regions first proposed as artificial systems 
in great part. The laws respecting them are much too arbitrary, 
and the regions indicated are neither like each other in the 
majority of books, nor are recognised by the greater number es 
botanists.” We think it simpler, in place of dwelling upon these 
natural regions, upon which botanists are by no means agT 
among themselves, to consider apart, in order to give a general 
idea of their vegetable products, the five geographical divisions of 
the whole world—Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. 
EvRope. . 
We can distinguish in Europe three great botanical regions. 
1. The region of the North. 2. The Middle region. And 3. The 
region,of the South, or Mediterranean. 
The Northern region comprehends Lapland, Iceland, the 
northern provinces of Sweden, of N orway, and of Russia. ibe 
vegetation there is monotonous, with little variety. The ligneous 
species form only one hundredth part of the plants we find 
there. The cryptogamous plants predominate. The trees are 
_ principally represented by Conifers and Amentales, with ome 
