2 



INTRODUCTION. 



That one or more such catastrophes, either universal or 

 local, have occurred at long unknown intervals of time, 

 is evident from the numerous fossil remains and imprints 

 of plants and animals found preserved in various condi- 

 tions under or on the surface of the earth, such being of 

 remarkable forms and quite distinct from any now living. 



It is the purpose of this work, however, to speak only 

 of the plants now living on the earth. 



In the Bible we find about one hundred different kinds 

 recorded, with the uses of many of them specified, which 

 with other evidence has enabled us to identify about one- 

 half with plants of the present day, while others remain 

 doubtful. 



For many centuries after the close of Bible history the 

 area of the earth known to the civihzed nations of 

 Europe, did not extend beyond the countries of Western 

 Asia, Egypt, and the regions around the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. But since the end of the fourteenth 

 century of the Christian era the middle and eastern 

 countries of Asia, Southern Africa, the continent of 

 America^ and the numerous islands of the ocean have 

 been discovered, and thousands of new plants become 

 known. Almost every different country or region, often 

 of limited area, possesses kinds peculiar to itself ; never- 

 theless, some Europ'^an plants are found common to 

 many distant and widely separated countries. 



Much has of late years been written on the geographical 

 distribution of plants and their " aspects in nature," upon 

 which, although of the highest interest in their study, 

 our space only admits of a few brief observations. With 

 the exception of the Polar regions, the snow and ice 

 capped mountains, and the moving Sahara, the earth, 

 *' and the waters under the earth," abound with plants. 



