Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/110

 *[Footnote: their predominance in advancing from the equator towards the poles follow a similar law of decrease in ascending mountains situated in the equatorial regions? Do the proportions of particular families to the whole mass of Phanerogamæ differ in the temperate zones, and on equal isothermal lines, north and south of the equator? These questions belong properly to the Geography of Plants, and connect themselves with the most important problems of meteorology and terrestrial physics. The character of a landscape or country is also in a high degree dependent on the predominance of particular families of plants, which render it either desolate or adorned, smiling or majestic. Grasses forming extensive savannahs, Palms and other trees affording food, or social Coniferæ forming forests, have powerfully influenced nations in respect to their material condition, to their manners, to their mental dispositions, and to the more or less rapid development of their prosperity.

In studying the geographical distribution of forms, we may consider species, genera, and natural families, separately. In social plants, a single species often covers extensive tracts of country; as in northern regions forests of Pines or Firs and extensive heaths (ericeta), in Spain cistus-covered grounds, and in tropical America assemblages of the same species of Cactus, Croton, Brathys, or Bambusa Guadua. It is interesting to examine these relations more closely, and to view in one case the great multiplicity of individuals, and in another the variety of organic development. We may inquire what species produces the greatest number of individuals in a particular zone, or we may ask]*