The vegetation of Krakatoa was completely exterminated in 1883 by a thick coat of red-hot pumice.
Beneath the trees grew some kind of lush, wet, bushy vegetation with silver-lit leaves and stems here and there.
The rain had refreshed the vegetation and the trunks of the trees were dark against the bright green leaves.
It is now beautiful with semi-tropic vegetation.
The vegetation of the Palaeozoic era, till towards its close, was apparently remarkably homogeneous all over the world.
We may draw with some certainty the conclusion that a general movement southward of vegetation had been brought about.
There has been in effect a successive shifting of zones of vegetation southwards from the pole.
The primary regions of vegetation, already indicated, and their subordinate provinces may now be considered more in detail.
The vegetation is almost tropically luxuriant - palms, wild pineapples, and ferns growing profusely, and the valleys being filled with wild beans and patches of taro.
The types of vegetation (tropical forests, sclerophyllous forest, temperate forests, tundra, &c.) thus briefly outlined are groups of Schimpers climatic formations.
After tea, Clara convinced her to walk around the cabin to look at the vegetation.
They endeavoured to define aspects of vegetation in which the forms exhibited an obvious adaptation to their climatic surroundings.
Every great group or phylum of vascular plants, when it has become dominant in the vegetation of the world, has produced members with the tree habit arising by the formation of a thick woody trunk, in most cases by the activity of a cambium.
In attempting to account for the distribution of existing vegetation we must take into account palaeontological evidence.
They are shrubby plants climbing over surrounding vegetation by means of tendrillike prolongations of the midrib of the leaf beyond the leaf-tip.
Hence, in any cosmopolitan treatment of vegetation, it is necessary to consider the groups of plant communities from the standpoint of the climatic or geographical district in which they occur; and this indeed is consistently done by Schimper.
While the tropics preserve for us what remains of the preTertiary or, at the latest, Eocene vegetation of the earth, which formerly had a much wider extension, the flora of the North Temperate region is often described as the survival of the Miocene.
The summit is flat and quite bare of vegetation, but the panorama in every direction is extremely grand.
The influence of man on plants and vegetation is also a biological factor, which is frequently ignored as such, and treated as if it were a thing apart.
The boreal is cold, the austral warm, and the tropical affords conditions of heat and moisture to which the vegetation of the others would be intolerant.
Dionysus, as the god of vines, and (in a special procession) Poseidon 4ura?µcos (" god of vegetation ") were associated with Demeter.
One thing is certain, that there is in Australia a flora that is a remnant of a vegetation once widely distributed.
The surface of the summit (the highest point is variously stated at 3549, 35 82 and 3850 ft.) is broken into small valleys and hills, and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, its flora including the superb orchid Disa grandiflora and the well-known silver tree.
The passage from winter to spring is very abrupt, and the prairies are rapidly clothed with vegetation, which, however, is soon scorched up by the sun.
For days together the traveller sees no other vegetation; even this, however, disappears as he approaches the regions recently left dry by the Caspian, where saline clays, bearing a few Salsolaceae, or mere sand, take the place of the black earth.
At the festival Chthonia, a cow (representing, according to Mannhardt, the spirit of vegetation), which voluntarily presented itself, was sacrificed by three old women.
The spring is exceptionally beautiful in central Russia; late as it usually is, it sets in with vigour, and vegetation develops with a rapidity which gives to this season in Russia a special charm, unknown in warmer climates.
The shortness of the summer, the deficiency of drainage and the depth to which the soil freezes in winter, are the circumstances which determine the characteristic features of the vegetation of the tundras.
The grass vegetation is very rich, and, according to lists still incomplete, no fewer than 1654 flowering plants are known.
The barrenness extends into the mountains themselves, where there are bare rock cliffs, stony slopes and a general absence of vegetation.
This vegetation, covering plains, mesas, and even extending up the sides of the mountains, gives the entire landscape the greyish or dull olive colour characteristic of the Great Basin.
The vegetation is similar to that of Fiji, but more definitely Indo-Malayan in character; it embraces all the plants of the groups to the east with many that are absent there.
In central Europe it thrives best in enclosed, preserved waters, with a clayey or muddy bottom and with an abundant vegetation; it avoids clear waters with stony ground, and is altogether absent from rapid streams. The tench is distinguished by its very small scales, which are deeply imbedded in a thick skin, whose surface is as slippery as that of an eel.
The vegetation is everywhere most scanty, and scarcely anything deserving the name of a tree is to be found unless in the more sheltered spots, and then artificially planted.
The rainfall, though not heavy, is sufficient to maintain such vegetation as is compatible with the conditions of temperature, and the surface is often swampy or peaty.
This belt, which embraces Asia Minor, northern Persia, Afghanistan, and the southern slopes of the Himalaya, from its elevation has a temperate climate, and throughout it the rainfall is sufficient to maintain a vigorous vegetation, while the summers, though hot, and the winters, though severe, are not extreme.
The vegetation of the hot and dry region of the south-west of the continent consists largely of plants which are diffused over Africa, Baluchistan and Sind; many of these extend into the hotter parts of India, and not a few common Egyptian plants are to be met with in the Indian peninsula.
But within this region there is a very great variation between the vegetation of the more humid and the more arid regions, while the characteristics of the flora on the higher mountain ranges differ wholly from those of the plains.
The higher mountains rise abruptly from the plains; on their slopes, clothed below almost exclusively with the more tropical forms, a vegetation of a warm temperate character, chiefly evergreen, soon begins to prevail, comprising Magnoliaceae, Ternstroemiaceae, subtropical Rosaceae, rhododendron, oak, Ilex, Symplocos, Lauraceae, Pinus longifolia, with mountain forms of truly tropical orders, palms, Pandanus, Musa, Vitis, Vernonia, and many others.
In the spring there is an abundant herbaceous vegetation, including many bulbous plants, with genera, if not species, identical with those of the Syrian region, some of which extend to the Himalaya.
Hylas, like Adonis and Hyacinthus, represents the fresh vegetation of spring, or the water of a fountain, which dries up under the heat of summer.
They occur up mountain slopes as far as vegetation extends, in tropical valleys and forests, in open grassy plains, in sandy deserts, and even in fresh-water ponds and between tide-marks on the seashore.
The pastures are everywhere luxuriant, and the wooded heights and winding glens, in which the tangled shrubbery is here and there broken up by open glades and flat meadows of green turf, exhibit a beauty of vegetation such as is hardly to be seen in any other district of Palestine.
The vegetation of the island is characterized by tropical luxuriance, - the moutainous regions being clad with dense forest, in which various species of palms, the camphor-tree (Laurus Camplaora), and the aloe are conspicuous.
But the lakes show a wonderful variety of character, from open expanse and steep rock-bound shores to picturesque island-groups and soft wooded banks; while the mountains have always a remarkable dignity, less from the profile of their summits than from the bold sweeping lines of their flanks, unbroken by vegetation, and often culminating.
There is no seasonal interruption in vegetation.
The myth itself probably represents the destruction of vegetation during the fifty dog-days.
The upper limit of arborescent vegetation is considered to run at 7000-7500 ft., of shrubs such as rhododendrons at 850o ft., and of pasture-lands up to 9000 ft.
If you're sure, Daniel, but I don't know how you can find your way back in this confused mess of vegetation.
The water-courses and depressions of the shingly steppes afford pasturage sufficient for the guanaco, and in places support a thorny vegetation of low growth and starved appearance.
They serve admirably to break the sombre and monotonous aspect of the Australian vegetation.
From this point of view it is not sufficient, in attempting to map out the earths surface into regions of vegetation, to have regard alone to adaptations to physical conditions.
Its arboreal vegetation is richer both in genera and species than that corresponding to it in the Old World.
It precludes the explanation of any common features in the dissevered porciuns of the tropical area of vegetation by lateral communirations, and throws back their origin to the remotest geological antiquity.
In the Gnetaceous Welwitschia it possesses a vegetable type whose extraordinary peculiarities make it seem amongst contemporary vegetation much as some strange and extinct animal form would if suddenly endowed with life.
Vegetation of all sorts acts in a similar way, either in forming soil and assisting in breaking up rocks, in filling up shallow lakes, and even, like the mangrove, in reclaiming wide stretches of land from the sea.
The middle zone, called the caa.tinga or agreste region, has a drier climate and lighter vegetation.
Vegetation ascends on the drier and less snowy mountain slopes of Tibet to above 18,00o ft.
Outside the European area vegetation spirits of all kinds seem to be conceived, as a rule, as anthropomorphic; in classical Europe, and parts of the Slavonic area at the present day, the tree spirit was believed to have the form of a goat, or to have goats' feet.
Their formation has been attributed to the effect of rotting vegetation on the rock, but without certainty.
The scenery of the islands is picturesque, gaining beauty from the fine colouring of the sea and the rich vegetation.
The wild vegetation in the height of summer is, in favourable situations, profuse in individual plants, though scanty in species.
Orange, olive, cypress and arbutus trees grow throughout the island, which, however, is too dry to have any profusion of vegetation.
The descent of the priest into the sacrificial foss symbolized the death of Attis, the withering of the vegetation of Mother Earth; his bath of blood and emergence the restoration of Attis, the rebirth of vegetation.
After this short period of frost and snow summer comes in its full beauty; the days are very hot, and, although they are always followed by cold nights, vegetation advances at an astonishing rate.
Berry-yielding plants are found everywhere, even on the goltsy, at the upper limit of tree vegetation; on the lower grounds they are an article of diet.
According to some, Niobe is the goddess of snow and winter, whose children, slain by Apollo and Artemis, symbolize the ice and snow melted by the sun in spring; according to others, she is an earth-goddess, whose progeny - vegetation and the fruits of the soil - is dried up and slain every summer by the shafts of the sun-god.
Vegetation is luxuriant and comprises a great variety of tropical and sub-tropical species.
From the violence of tyranny, and the rapine of a disorderly banditti, by which this district long suffered, as well as from shocks of earthquakes, the villages have a ruinous and dilapidated appearance; and, with the exception of a few fields in their neighbourhood, the country presents a rocky and sandy waste, with in many places scarcely a show of vegetation.
The country is mountainous, and the vegetation of the lower heights begins to assume a tropical aspect.
Because light is accompanied by heat, he was the god of vegetation and increase; he sent prosperity to the good, and annihilated the bad; he was the god of armies and the champion of heroes; as the enemy of darkness and of all evil spirits, he protected souls, accompanying them on the way to paradise, and was thus a redeemer.
South and south-west of this arid plateau lie the inhabited tablelands of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, where the climate is greatly modified by a luxuriant vegetation and southerly winds, as well as by the elevation.
Even where settlements have been located, constant effort is required to keep the vegetation down.
In the northern temperate zone we find forests of a single species, others of three or four species; in this great tropical forest the habit of growth is solitary and an acre of ground will contain hundreds of species - palms, myrtles, acacias, mimosas, cecropias, euphorbias, malvaceas, laurels, cedrellas, bignonias, bombaceas, apocyneas, malpigias, lecythises, swartzias, &c. The vegetation of the lower river-margins, which are periodically flooded, differs in some particulars from that of the higher ground, and the same variation is to be found between the forests of the upper and lower Amazon, and between the Amazon and its principal tributaries.
The coast and tide-water rivers are fringed with mangrove, and the sandy plain reaching back to the margin of the inland plateau is generally bare of vegetation, though the carnahuba palm (Copernicia cerifera) and some species of low-growing trees are to be found in many places.
The vegetation is similar to that of Paraguay and the Chaco, and aquatic plants are specially numerous and luxuriant.
Its banks in its upper course are wild and picturesque, with occasional wide deep valleys, with climate and vegetation resembling the coast belt.
Occasionally vast armies of locusts or caterpillars advance over large tracts of country, devouring all vegetation in their line of march.
The vegetation around them contains plants characteristic of the sea shores.
The coastal zone and lower slopes of all the mountains, including the lower Orinoco region and the Maracaibo basin, are clothed with a typical tropical vegetation.
The tropical vegetation extends to an altitude of about 1300 ft., above which it may be classed as semi-tropical up to about 3500 ft., and temperate up to 7200 ft., above which the vegetation is Alpine.
They are now overgrown with luxuriant vegetation.
The vine is hardy in Britain so far as regards its vegetation, but not hardy enough to bring its fruit to satisfactory maturity, so that for all practical purposes the vine must be regarded as a tender fruit.
Their growth makes no new addition of mineral food-constituents to the land, but they bring useful substances from the subsoil nearer to the surface, and after the decay of the buried vegetation these become available to succeeding crops of wheat or other plants.
Above the level of the ground-water the soil is kept moist by capillary attraction and by evaporation of the water below, by rainfall, and by movements of the ground-water; on the other hand, the upper layers are constantly losing moisture by evaporation from the surface and through vegetation.
The character of the vegetation which clothes their slopes shows that even superficial changes must be slight.
The surface of the harra is extremely broken, forming a labyrinth of lava crags and blocks of every size; the whole region is sterile and almost waterless, and compared with the Nafud it produces little vegetation; but it is resorted to by the Bedouin in the spring and summer months when the air is always fresh and cool.
Deep valleys winding through the barren foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built villages, with their masonry towers or da y s, crowning every height, replace the collection of *mud walls and brushwood huts of the low country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their mountains.
Its northern fringe is no doubt frequented by the Bedouin tribes of southern Nejd after the rains, when its sands, like those of the northern desert, produce herbage; but towards the east, according to Burckhardt's information, it is quite without vegetation even in the winter and spring.
In the morning the Tehama, as seen from the mountain tops, appears buried in a sea of white cloud; towards noon the clouds drift up the mountain slopes and cover the summits with wreaths of light mist charged with moisture which condenses on the trees and vegetation; in the afternoon they disappear, and the evenings are generally clear and still.
Vegetation is abundant, and recalls that of the more fertile districts of southern Spain and of Italy.
Although it is almost always covered with some kind of vegetation, trees are relatively rare.
In the oases of the Jerid are found several species of tropical African mammals and two or three of Senegalese birds, and the vegetation seems to have as much affinity with tropical Africa as with Europe.
At the Oxford botanic garden he conducted numerous experiments upon the effect of changes in soil, light and the composition of the atmosphere upon vegetation.
The coast has been upraised from the ocean at no very distant geological epoch, and is nearly as destitute of vegetation as the Coast.
But, when the mists set in, the low hills near the coast bordering the deserts, which are called lomas, undergo a change as if by magic. A blooming vegetation of wild flowers for a short time covers the barren hills.
The great variety of elevation within the sierra produces vegetation belonging to every zone.
There abound "beautifully laid out gardens, public and private, and solidly constructed roads, some of them bordered with bamboos and other delicately-fronded trees, and fringed with the luxuriant growth of semi-tropical vegetation."
But towards the top the upward growth of vegetation had not concealed the loose ashes which still remained as evidence of the volcanic nature of the place.
Within the area thus defined tsetse-flies are not found continuously, however, but occur only in small tracts called" belts " or " patches," which, since cover and shade are necessities of life to these insects, are always situated in forest, bush or banana plantations, or among other shady vegetation.
The boulder clay or " hard pan " of which most of the surface lands are composed, forms a very indifferent support for vegetation, and consequently the state is not well adapted for the growing of crops.
The eastern slopes receive more rain and are well clothed with vegetation, but the lower valleys are subtropical in character and are largely devoted to sugar production.
Along the western side of northern Anti-Lebanon stretches the Khasha'a, a rough red region lined with juniper trees, a succession of the hardest limestone crests and ridges, bristling with bare rock and crag that shelter tufts of vegetation, and are divided by a succession of grassy ravines.
The great mass of the vegetation, however, is of the low-growing type (maquis or garrigue of the western Mediterranean), with small and stiff leaves, and frequently thorny and aromatic, as for example the ilex (Quercus coccifera), Smilax, Cistus, Lentiscus, Calycotome, &c. (2) Next comes, from 1600 to 6500 ft., the mountain region, which may also be called the forest region, still exhibiting sparse woods and isolated trees wherever shelter, moisture and the inhabitants have permitted their growth.
The vegetation is also rich, and Amboyna produces most of the common tropical fruits and vegetables, including the sago-palm, bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, sugar-cane, maize, coffee, pepper and cotton.
The vegetation of these regions is naturally subjected to the different climateric conditions.
Firs and pines cover the mountain heights; and below these, but still at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet, is a zone of vegetation, consisting principally of oaks and rhododendrons.
Vegetation is generally luxuriant, and forest clothes portions of the mountain slopes.
Cactaceae belong almost entirely to the New World; but some of the Opuntias have been so long distributed over certain parts of Europe, especially on the shores of the Mediterranean and the volcanic soil of Italy, that they appear in some places to have taken possession of the soil, and to be distinguished with difficulty from the aboriginal vegetation.
The ground around the "viscachera" is cleared from vegetation, the refuse of which is heaped upon the mound.
The cause of this change is not known, but it is attributed to extensive drainage and removal of vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood of the town.
The very finest sediment is kept in a state of movement until it drops into the gulleys or furrows of the shelf, where it can come to rest together with the finer fragments of the remains of littoral or bank vegetation.
The most abundant of the terrigenous materials are the finest particles of clay and calcium carbonate as well as fragments derived from land vegetation, of which twigs, leaves, &c., may form a perceptible proportion as far as 200 m.
The fungus was never found growing within the circle during the time the ring was under observation, the decaying vegetation necessary for its growth having become exhausted.
The tree vegetation consists rather of jungle or copse than forest, abounding in game which is preserved by the native chiefs.
Where the Arabs have established settlements the coco-palm and mango tree introduced by them give variety to the vegetation.
The character of the vegetation varies with and depends on moisture, temperature and soil.
A little vegetation is met with in the stream valleys, but most of the rivers marked on the map have ceased to show running water in their lower courses.
But much of the lower ground is stony and poor in vegetation, while the lowland near the main Nile is exceedingly marshy.
The vegetation is luxuriant except in the Rudolf region,.
The alpine vegetation on all these lofty mountains is of a mixed Cape and Abyssinian character - witch-hazels, senecios, lobelias, kniphofias, everlasting flowers, tree heaths and hypericums. The really tropical vegetation of Buganda is nearly identical with that of West Africa, but there is no oil-palm.
Los Angeles has beautiful shade trees and a wealth of semi-tropic vegetation.
As the mountains of Valencia and Catalonia effectually bar out the fertilizing moisture of the sea-winds, much of the province is a sheer wilderness, stony, ash-coloured, scarred with dry watercourses, and destitute of any vegetation except thin grass and heaths.
Vegetation is very rapid, and the soil is clad in a mantle of almost perpetual green.
The reptile doubtless frequented marshes, feeding on the succu lent vegetation, and often swimming in the water.
The rivers rising in the southern mountains, which no longer reach the Oxus, terminate in vast swamps near Akcha, and into these the debris of such vegetation as yearly springs up on the slopes of the southern hills is washed down in time of flood.
Judging from the abundant fossil remains of trees, the island must have been thickly clothed with woods and other vegetation of which it has no doubt been denuded by volcanic action and submergence, and possibly by changes of climate.
Hooker the vegetation of Kerguelen Island is of great antiquity; and may have originally reached it from the American continent; it has no affinities with Africa.
The present climate is not favourable to permanent vegetation; the island lies within the belt of rain at all seasons of the year, and is reached by no drying winds; its temperature is kept ddwn by the surrounding vast expanse of sea, and it lies within the line of the cold Antarctic drift.
On the lower slopes of the mountains a rank vegetation exists, which, from the conditions mentioned, is constantly saturated with moisture.
The characteristic feature of the vegetation, the Kerguelen's Land cabbage, was formerly abundant, but has been greatly reduced by rabbits introduced on to the island.
The scanty vegetation is a mixture of the flora of south-east Russia and that of the deserts of central Asia.
The Aucklands contain two of the finest harbours in the Pacific. Six hundred miles north of Auckland, the volcanic Kermadecs, covering 8208 acres, are picturesquely clothed with vegetation.
Along the whole west coast the climate resembles nothing in the British Islands so much as Cork and Kerry, for there are the same wet gales from a western ocean, the same clouds gathering on the dripping sides of wild mountains, an equal absence of severe frosts and hot sunshine, and a rich and evergreen vegetation.
Most of the bluffs along the principal river valleys, especially those in the south-east, are entirely bare of vegetation, but on the bottom lands along the rivers and streams considerable patches of cottonwood and willows are common.
The only representative of tree vegetation now is a dwarf willow 1 in.
As a pastoral god he was often closely connected with deities of vegetation, especially Pan and the nymphs.
The sides of these ridges and pinnacles are bare of vegetation and display a variety of colours in buff, cream, pale green, grey and flesh.
In the north-eastern districts the climate is somewhat uncertain, and damage is often done to early fruit-blossoms and vegetation by cold easterly winds and late frosts.
In the large portion of the county sheltered by the Downs the climate is milder and more equable, and vegetation is somewhat earlier.
He organised extensive magnetical and meteorological observations, and in 1839 he started regular observations of the periodical phenomena of vegetation, especially the flowering of plants.
The sands and clays found here are fine and soft, and as there is scant vegetation to protect the hillsides they are easily eroded by the rains.
The Bad Lands exhibit a vegetation typical of semi-arid regions.
The faces of buttes and ravines that are turned toward the sun are usually devoid of vegetation.
The summers are short, but as there are sixteen hours of sunlight per day in midsummer, vegetation grows rapidly.
During the growing season the winds are usually light, but in the late summer and autumn occasional dry, hot, southerly winds (" hot southers ") prove very destructive to vegetation.
Over the whole basin this deposit, to a depth of I or 2 ft., is coloured black by decayed vegetation, and constitutes one of the most fertile tracts on the continent.
The most striking general fact as regards climate in the archipelago is that wherever that part of the south-east monsoon which has passed over Australia strikes, the climate is comparatively dry, and the vegetation is less luxuriant.
In its economical aspect the vegetation, whether natural or cultivated, is of prime interest.
Throughout vegetation is scanty and faunal life poor in species, though in some respects certain of the species, e.g.
The vegetation consists almost entirely of scrubby bushes of several varieties, including tamarisks and wild briers, of reeds (kamish), and of grass on the yaylaks (pasture-grounds) of the middle ranges.
The glaciers also attain a greater development in the western portion of the Nan-shan, but the valleys are dry, and the slopes of both the mountains and the valleys, furrowed by deep ravines, are devoid of vegetation.
In the northeastern Nan-shan, on the contrary, a stream runs through each gorge, and both the mountain slopes and the bottoms of the valleys are covered with vegetation.
With the exception of these sandy plains the country is heavily forested, even the mountain sides being covered with vegetation to their summits.
Unmolested by enemies (Harpagornis, a tremendous bird of prey, died out with the Pleistocene), living in an equable insular climate, with abundant vegetation, the moas flourished and seem to have reached their greatest development in specialization, numbers, and a bewildering variety of large and small kinds, within quite recent times.
In considering the flora of the islands it is necessary to distinguish between the rich vegetation of the fertile volcanic islands and the poor vegetation of the coral islands.
But almost everywhere the vegetation serves to smooth the contours of the rugged hills, ferns, mosses and shrubs growing wherever their roots can cling, and leaving only the steepest crags uncovered to form, as in Tahiti, a striking contrast.
Recent grail researches have made it most probable that that mysterious talisman was originally the vessel of the ritual feast held in honour of a deity of vegetation, - Adonis, or another; if the Round Table also, as Dr Mott suggests, derives from a similar source, we have a link between these two notable features of Arthurian tradition, and an additional piece of evidence in support of the view that behind the Arthur of romance there lie not only memories of an historic British chieftain, but distinct traces of a mythological and beneficent hero.
The majority live on broken ground, with or without much vegetation; many are arboreal and many are true desert animals, while a few are more or less aquatic; one, the leguan of the Galapagos, Amblyrhynchus, even enters the sea.
The climate, in spite of frequent mists and rains, sudden changes of temperature, and occasional great mid-day heat, is healthy and favourable to vegetation.
In general the soil is extremely fertile, and where it is naturally drained a rich vegetation of fern and flax occurs.
One of the finest of the endemic flowering plants of the group is the boraginaceous "Chatham Island lily" (M y ousitidium nobile), a gigantic forget-me-not, which grows on the shingly shore in a few places only, and always just on the high-water mark, where it is daily deluged by the waves; while dracophyllums, leucopogons and arborescent ragworts are characteristic forms in the vegetation.
The talus zone of this region, especially atelevations of 1000 to 3000 ft., is noted for its great fertility and the luxuriance of its vegetation.
The relief of the land and varying degrees of rainfall and vegetation, however, serve to modify these conditions in many important particulars.
Then, there are the mangrove-fringed coasts and the dripping wooded slopes where rare orchids thrive, and above these, on the inland side of the sierra, a treeless, sun-scorched table-land where only the cactus, yucca, and other coarse vegetation of the desert can thrive without irrigation.
There is but little natural vegetation to be seen - ragged yucca trees, many species of agave and cactus, scrubby mesquite bushes, sage bushes and occasional clumps of coarse grasses.
Fire was generally used in clearing these lands, with the result that their arboreal vegetation was ultimately killed and their fertility destroyed.
A fertile soil, abundant rainfall and high temperatures have covered these mountain slopes and lowland plains with a wealth of vegetation.
The third zone loses its arid character as it approaches the coast, and is better clothed with vegetation.
Dionysus was believed to take the form of a goat, probably as a divinity of vegetation.
In Europe the corn spirit sometimes immanent in the crop, sometimes a presiding deity whose life does not depend on that of the growing corn, is conceived in some districts in the form of an ox, hare or cock, in others as an old man or woman; in the East Indies and America the rice or maize mother is a corresponding figure; in classical Europe and the East we have in Ceres and Demeter, Adonis and Dionysus, and other deities, vegetation gods whose origin we can readily trace back to the rustic corn spirit.
In early geological times the sequoias occupied a far more important place in the vegetation of the earth.
The coastal lowland between the sea arms is so flat that, although distinctly above sea-level, vegetation hinders drainage and extensive swamps or pocossins occur.
The time of stich widespread submergence was hardly the time for the great development of land vegetation.
Some of the bess is thought to have been derived by the wind from the surface of the drift soon after the retreat of the ice, before vegetation got a foothold upon the new-made deposit; but a large part of the bess, especially that associated with the main valleys, appears to have been blown up on to the bluffs of the valleys from the flood plains below.
On the westward slopes, especially of the Selkirks and Coast Ranges, vegetation is almost tropical in its density and luxuriance, the giant cedar and the Douglas fir sometimes having diameters of 10 ft.
In the forest regions north of the lakes the vegetation on the shores of Lake Erie requires a high winter temperature, while the east and north shores of Lake Superior have a boreal vegetation that shows the summer temperature of this enormous water-stretch to be quite low.
At the higher levels the vegetation becomes more Arctic. Northwards the valleys of the Peace and other rivers differ little from those of Quebec and the northern prairies.
Above Yale, in the drier part of the Fraser valley, the absence of rain results in the same character of flora, while in the rainy districts of the lower Fraser the vegetation is so luxuriant that it resembles that of the tropics.
The copious snowfall protects vegetation, supplies moisture, and contributes nitrogen to the soil.
The surrounding country is one of the prettiest and most fertile regions in Cuba, varied with woods, rivers, rocky gulches, beautiful cascades and charming tropic vegetation.
These spurs are covered with luxuriant vegetation, excepting their perpendicular faces and the slopes occupied by the suburbs.
The Apsheron peninsula is dry and bare of vegetation; but within it are situated the famous petroleum wells of Baku.
The valleys are remarkable for beautiful scenery, - peaks, cliffs, lateral ravines, cascades and tropical vegetation.
Here the snow lies late and moisture is abundant - but on the southern sun-scorched cliffs but little vegetation is to be seen.
The vegetation of the small and narrow islands, all encompassed by the sea, is very luxuriant, and the products, principally nutmegs, mace, and other spices, include also rice and sago.
Some districts, indeed, such as the Vega of Granada, are famous for the luxuriance of their vegetation.
The delta is also cut into many irregular divisions by other canals which derive their flow from its great boundary rivers, the Corosimi and Vagre, and its numerous islands and vast swamps are covered with a dense vegetation.
The vegetation is rich and luxuriant.
All are similar in their trends, forms, sculpture and vegetation, and are plainly and harmoniously related to the ancient glaciers.
Low temperatures are prevalent throughout these western regions, whose bleak desolation is unrelieved by the existence of trees or vegetation of any size, and where the wind sweeps unchecked across vast expanses of arid plain.
Of the forty or fifty genera obtained by Littledale in central Tibet a large proportion are British, including many of the most characteristic mountain forms. In the higher regions of northern and western Tibet the conditions under which vegetation exists are extreme.
In both the Castiles the central plateau has a naturally fertile soil, for after rain a luxuriant vegetation appears; but drought is common, owing to the insufficient volume of the rivers, and the failure of the Spaniards to extend the fine system of irrigation which the Moors originated.
This coast, though beautiful, is somewhat sombre, the prevalent colour of the rocks, a light, dead grey, contrasting harshly with the dark vegetation, which on some of the islands is luxuriant.
The hill from which the earth is dug is a dry mound, void of vegetation, beside the village of Kotschinos, and about two hours from the site of Hephaestia.
Owing to the prevalent dry easterly winds from the arid plains of north Australia, Timor, like Ombay, Flores and other neighbouring islands, has a much drier climate, and a poorer vegetation, than islands further west, and has few perennial streams and no considerable rivers.
Vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant and varied.
In arctic regions lichens form by far the largest portion of the vegetation, occurring everywhere on the ground and on rocks, and fruiting freely; while terrestrial species of Cladonia and Stereocaulon are seen in the greatest luxuriance and abundance spreading over extensive tracts almost to the entire exclusion of other vegetation.
But the low temperature causes the moisture-laden winds to deposit here greater quantities of rain and snow than in the semi-arid regions below, which not only promote the growth of vegetation, but cause the activity of the springs, geysers and waterfalls.
The death of the god, he suggests, is represented by the Fast of Esther on the 13th of Adar, the day before Purim, while the rejoicing on Purim itself, and the licence accompanying it, recall the union of the god and goddess of vegetation, of which he sees traces in the relations of Mordecai and Esther.
Vegetation is, however, tolerably abundant - tamarisks, oleanders, kafas, euphorbias, the milk bush, rhamnus and acacias being the most common and most characteristic forms of vegetable life, and pools of water are frequent.
Six regions or zones, which are best distinguished by their characteristic vegetation, are found in the Alps.
Local conditions of exposure to the sun, protection from cold winds, or the reverse, are of primary importance in determining the climate and the corresponding vegetation.
These do not reach exactly to the same elevation, nor are they often found growing together; but their upper limit corresponds accurately enough to the change from a temperate to a colder climate that is further proved by a change in the wild herbaceous vegetation.
In many districts where such woods once existed, their place has been occupied by the Scottish pine and spruce, which suffer less from the ravages of goats, the worst enemies of tree vegetation.
It is here that the characteristic vegetation of the Alps is developed in its full beauty and variety.
Three species of rhododendron vie with each other in the brilliancy of their masses of red or pink flowers; the common juniper rises higher still, along with three species of bilberry; and several dwarf willows attain nearly to the utmost limit of vegetation.
Increased direct effect of solar radiation compensates for the cold of the nights, and in the few spots where plants have been found in flower up to a height of 12,000 ft., nothing has indicated that the processes of vegetation were arrested by the severe cold which they must sometimes endure.
Hence the upper region of the Alps sustains a far more varied and brilliant vegetation.
We must observe, as regards the plants of the lower alpine region, that it is the actual presence of a forest vegetation, rather than the theoretical treelimit, which affects their vertical distribution; so that, e.g.
On the upper verge of the pine forests, or in the scrubby vegetation just beyond, the following are not uncommon - black woodpecker (Picus martius), ring-ousel (Turdus torquatus), Bonelli's warbler (Phylloscopus Bonellii), crested tit (Parus cristatus), citril finch (Citrinella alpina), siskin (Chrysomitris spinus), crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), blackcock (Tetrao tetrix), and the alpine varieties of the marsh-tit (Parus palustris, borealis) and tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris, costae).
Rain-water is the best, next to that river or pond water, and last of all that from springs; but a chemical analysis should be made of the last before introducing it, as some spring waters contain mineral ingredients injurious to vegetation.
In a fresh state it is poisonous and fatal to vegetation, and is often used for this reason to dress land infested with wireworms, grubs, club-root fungus, &c.
Common salt acts as a manure when used in moderate quantities, but in strong doses is injurious to vegetation.
The scions should be taken off some weeks before they are wanted, and half-buried in the earth, since the stock at the time of grafting should in point of vegetation be somewhat in advance of the graft.
Any sudden decrease of warmth would be very prejudicial to the progress of vegetation through the successive stages of foliation, inflorescence and fructification.
With moisture as with heat, the cultivator must hold his hand somewhat in very severe or very dull weather; but while heat must not drop so as to chill the progressing vegetation, so neither must the lack of moisture parch the plants so as to check their growth.
That the vegetation during this period was unusually exuberant there can be no doubt, and that a general uniformity of climatic conditions prevailed is shown not only by the wide distribution of coal measures, but by the uniformity of plant types over the whole earth.
But there is no good evidence for an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - an assumption founded on the luxuriance of the vegetation, coupled with the fact that volcanicity was active and wide-ranging.
The foreign boulders of granite, gneiss, &c., found in the coalmeasures of some districts, are quite as likely to have been dropped by rafts of vegetation as to have been carried by floating icebergs.
In Sumatra, as in Java, the vegetation of the lowlands up to nearly moo ft.
The vegetation of the meadow-lands is monotonous.
In the third and highest zone the vegetation is stunted, and there is a narrow zone of sub-Alpine shrubs, but no Alpine flora.
Its situation is very beautiful, the moist climate (mean annual rainfall, 74 in.) fostering on the steep surrounding hills a vegetation unusually luxuriant for the latitude.
David, who spent some time in the Albert Edward district, that the creature dwells in the most dense parts of the primeval forest, where there is an undergrowth of solid-leaved, swamp-loving plants, such as arum, Donax and Phrynium, which, with orchids and climbing plants, form a thick and confused mass of vegetation.
Few areas of large extent in any part of the world are absolutely devoid of vegetation, and the transition from typical desert conditions is often very gradual and ill-defined.
In "cold deserts" the want of vegetation is wholly due to the prevailing low temperature, while in "hot deserts" the surface is unproductive because, on account of high temperature and deficient rainfall, evaporation is largely in excess of precipitation.
These phyllodes, by their vertical position and their peculiar form, give a remarkable aspect to vegetation.
For half the year the hillsides are bare and steppe-like, but in spring are clothed with a subtropical vegetation.
In both cases the object is to promote vegetation.
These coming into contact with the roots of plants during their season of active growth, are utilized as direct nourishment for the vegetation.
Without this occasional drying of the soil the finer grasses and the leguminous plants will infallibly be lost; while a scum of confervae and other algae will collect upon the surface and choke the higher forms of vegetation.
Should it be thought that the traces of the more valuable sorts of plant food (such as compounds of nitrogen, phosphates, and potash salts) existing in ordinary brook or river water can never bring an appreciable amount of manurial matter to the soil, or exert an appreciable effect upon the vegetation, yet the quantity of water used during the season must be taken into account.
The growth is less checked by early frosts; and whatever advantages to the vegetation may accrue by occasional excessive warmth in the atmosphere in the early months of the year are experienced more by the irrigated than by the ordinary meadow grasses by reason of the abundant development of roots which the water has encouraged.
The general aspect of the vegetation of Sicily, however, has been greatly affected, as in other parts of the Mediterranean, by the introduction of plants within historical times.
With respect to vegetation and cultivation three zones may be distinguished.
But it is not merely height that determines the general character of the vegetation.
But it by no means follows that Hera was therefore originally a goddess of the earth or of vegetation.
The sacred marriage, therefore, though connected with vegetation at the Daedala, was not necessarily a vegetation-charm in its origin; consequently, it does not prove that Hera was an earthgoddess or tree-spirit.
Owing to the slight rainfall, and the rapid weathering of the rocks by the great range of teniperature, these hills rise steeply from the valleys at their feet as almost bare rock, supporting hardly any vegetation.
Flora.Egypt possesses neither forests nor woods arid, as practically the whole of the country which will support vegetation is devoted to agriculture, the flora is limited.
Towards the Mediterranean its quality is injured by the salt with which the air is impregnated, and therefore it is not so favorable to vegetation.
Successive theories interpreted him as the god of the earth, as the god of the Nile, as a god of vegetation, as a moon-god and as a sun-god; and nearly every one of these theories has been claimed to be the primitive truth by some scholar or another.
Above the tree line the vegetation continues only a comparatively short distance, consisting chiefly of tussocks of coarse grass, and occasional flowering.
Vegetation is prolific. Rice is grown by the natives, but the sago tree is of far greater importance to them.
The trend of the evolution of the plant kingdom has been in the direction of the establishment of a vegetation of fixed habit and adapted to the vicissitudes of a life on land, and the Angiosperms are the highest expression of this evolution and constitute the dominant vegetation of the earth's surface at the present epoch.
The hills are composed principally of granite and syenite, and have little vegetation.
The vegetation of Transylvania is luxuriant, except of course in the higher mountain zones.
Thus a rock emerging from a sandy beach may often be observed to stand covered with vegetation like an oasis in a desert.
The clays, which contain layers of good coal and an abundant fossil vegetation, show that during the Miocene period Sakhalin formed part of a continent which comprised north Asia, Alaska and Japan, and enjoyed a comparatively warm climate.
A little coal is mined and some rye, wheat, oats, barley and vegetables are grown, although the period during which vegetation can grow averages less than ioo days.
The sombre colouring is relieved by vegetation along the edges of the nearly flat beds which project like great cornices and serve as nesting-places for sea-fowl.
It is also disengaged by growing vegetation, plants possessing the power of absorbing carbon dioxide, assimilating the carbon and rejecting the oxygen.
They are also characterized by the increasing aridity of the plateau from north to south, the Quito plain being fertile and well covered with vegetation, and the Ambato and Cuenca plains being barren and desolate except in some favoured localities.
Farther north the rainfall becomes heavier, the plateau is covered with vegetation, and a considerable number of small rivers flow westward through the Cordillera to the Pacific. The Eastern Cordillera, or Andes, forms the water-parting between the two systems. The largest of the eastward-flowing rivers is the Napo, which rises in the eastern defiles of Cotopaxi and Sincholagua - the principal source being the Rio del Valle, which traverses the Valle Vicioso.
There is no great display of arboreal vegetation anywhere except in the valleys and lower passes where the rainfall is abundant, but in general terms it may be said that the rainfall and vegetation which characterize the Quito basin soon disappear as one proceeds southward, and are substituted by arid conditions.
In the treeless region lying between 11,600 and 13,800, or in other places between 12,000 and 14,000 ft., the similarity of the vegetation to that of the corresponding European region, according to Wagner, is especially striking.
The explanation is to be found in the extreme flatness of the country and the absence of trees or vegetation.
In winter they are occasionally visited by a hot south-east wind from Africa, which is called the Levante, and produces various disagreeable consequences on the exposed parts of the person, besides injuring the vegetation, especially on the higher grounds.
This is the region of south European vegetation, the climate answering to that of southern France and central Italy.
The forms of vegetation must in the main be considered North African.
The character of the vegetation in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, islands composed of extensive plains and low hills, with few springs, is different from that of the other islands, which are more elevated and have many springs.
The wood is less abundant, and the vegetation less luxuriant.
It is a waste, destitute of water and with but scanty vegetation.
In all parts of the country the contrast between the landscape in early spring and later, when the cessation of rains and the increase of heat has burnt up the vegetation, is very remarkable.
When its deleterious effects upon vegetation, building materials, &c., became better known, and when at the same time an outlet had been found for moderate quantities of hydrochloric acid, most factories made more or less successful attempts to " condense " the gas by absorption in water.
The characteristic distribution of vegetation on the mountains of Afghanistan is worthy of attention.
Their scanty vegetation is almost wholly herbal; shrubs are only occasional; trees almost non-existent.
But even within the limits of the Lower Gondwana series there are great diversities of vegetation, three distinct floras occurring in the three great divisions of that formation.
In the strip of low country that fringes the peninsula below the Ghats the rainfall is heavy and the climate warm and damp, the vegetation being dense and characteristically tropical, and the steep slopes of the Ghats, where they have not been artificially cleared, thickly clothed with forest.
But higher up the valley, and especially north of Pegu, the country is drier, and is characterized by a less luxuriant vegetation and a retarded and more scanty rainfall.
Its vegetation is in point of fact of a composite character, and is constituted by the meeting and more or less blending of adjoining floras, - those of Persia and the south-eastern Mediterranean area to the north-west, of Siberia to the north, of China to the east, and of Malaya to the south-east.
The upper levels of the Himalayas slope northwards gradually to the Tibetan uplands, over which the Siberian temperate vegetation ranges.
The annual vegetation which springs up in the rainy season includes numerous genera, such as Sida and Indigofera, which are largely represented both in Africa and Hindustan.
This intermediate mountain belt is covered with luxuriant vegetation.
It consists of well-watered, wide, rolling plains, and low hills with scanty vegetation.
Recent eruptive rocks, mainly basalts, form a line of hills almost bare of vegetation between Benguella and Mossamedes.
The island is notable for its tropical vegetation and climate.
On the west is the Arakan Yoma range, and on the east the Pegu Yomas; and the face of the country, where it does not rise into mountains, is everywhere broken ty low ranges of hills, many of which are barren and destitute of all vegetation.
The semi-personification of eiresione will be noticed; and, according to Mannhardt, the branch "embodies the tree-spirit conceived as the spirit of vegetation in general, whose vivifying and - fructifying influence is thus brought to bear upon the corn in particular."
They are mostly bordered by dense vegetation; in the dry season water is found in pools in the river beds or can be obtained by digging.
To the west and north the plateau sinks in terraces to the plains of the Sudan, and eastward falls more abruptly to the Red Sea, the coast plain, known as the Samhar, consisting of sandy country covered with mimosa and, along the khors, with a somewhat richer vegetation.
In the low country the flora differs little from that of tropical Africa generally, whilst on the plateau the vegetation is characteristic of the temperate zone.
The soil, usually of a reddish-brown colour, is for the most part disintegrated lava mixed with decayed vegetation; occasionally there is also a mixture of disintegrated coral limestone.
The popular factor is the belief in the influence exerted by the movements of the heavenly bodies on occurrences on earth - a belief naturally suggested by the dependence of life, vegetation and guidance upon the two great luminaries.
It extends but a few miles inland, but within this belt is virtually a prolongation of the rainy season and has a marked effect on vegetation.
Yet the surrounding country is not devoid of vegetation.
Irrigation has shown that with water, arid and barren plains, veritable deserts, may be made to bloom with immense wealth of semi-tropical fruits; and irrigation in the tropical area along the Colorado river, which is so arid that it naturally bears only desert vegetation, has made it a true humid-tropical region like Southern Florida, growing true tropical fruits.
Existence is made possible in this oasis by a small mountain stream, also called Tacna, which supports a scanty vegetation.
The flora of Borneo is very rich, the greater portion of the surface of the island being clothed in luxuriant vegetation.
A fine gorge opening from the hills immediately upon the site of the town is known as Cheddar cliffs from the sheer walls which flank it; the contrast of its rocks and rich vegetation, and the falls of a small stream traversing it, make up a beautiful scene admired by many visitors.
The southern division is one mass of rugged granitic sierras, interspersed, however, with sheltered and well-watered valleys, abounding with rich vegetation.
The vines are to a great extent still trained on trees or trellis-work, or allowed to grow among the rest of the vegetation in the most casual manner.
New Mexico has such a great range of elevations that all four of the zones of vegetation into which the South-West has been divided according to altitude are found within its limits; namely, the zone of cactus, yucca and agave (3000-3500 ft.), where grass is scanty; the zone of greasewood and sage-brush (3500-4900 ft.), where there is little grass, and the cactus species are less numerous; the zone of the cedar (4900-6800 ft.); and the zone of the pine and fir (6800 - 10,800 ft.), in which grass is more abundant.
It is adorned with several pretty gardens with a luxuriant southern vegetation.
As vegetation begins to appear, herds of wild elephants and buffaloes are attracted by the supply of food and the solitude of the newly-formed land, and in their turn contribute to manure the soil.
This region is rainless, barren and inhospitable, absolutely destitute of vegetation except in some small river valleys where irrigation is possible, and on the slopes of some of the snow-covered peaks where the water from the melting snows nourishes a scanty and coarse vege tation before it disappears in the thirsty sands.
The first is an arid desert absolutely barren along part of the coast, between Tacna and Copiapo, but with a coarse scanty vegetation near the Cordilleras along watercourses and on the slopes where moisture from the melting snows above percolates through the sand.
In the valleys of the Copiapo and Huasco rivers a meagre vegetation is to be found near their channels, apart from what is produced by irrigation, but the surface of the plateau and the dry river channels below the sierras are completely barren.
The evergreens largely predominate here as well as in the extreme south, and on the open, sunburnt plains the vegetation takes on a subtropical aspect.
A great part of the northern deserts is as barren of animal life as of vegetation, and the dense humid forests of the south shelter surprisingly few species.
Its bed is generally rocky; its banks are high and covered with luxuriant vegetation.
The sandy, coastal plain, with a width of 12 to 18 m., is nearly bare of vegetation.
The soil is thin and porous and does not retain moisture, consequently the long, dry season turns the country into a barren desert, relieved only by vegetation along the river courses and mountain ranges, and by the hardy, widelydistributed carnahuba palm (Copernicia cerifera),which in places forms groves of considerable extent.
As we approach inner Persia the flora rapidly makes place to steppe vegetation in the plains, while the mediterranean flora predominates in the hills.
The steppe vegetation extends in the south to the outer range of the hills which separate inner Persia from the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Generally speaking, everywhere, excepting in the northern lowlands and in a few favored spots in the hilly districts, the vegetation is scanty.
Sugar Loaf is timbered to the top, and the peninsula is verdant with abundant vegetation.
Coarse grasses are the characteristic vegetation of the tableland.
It is constructed on the hedge and alley system, and was, it is believed, originally planted with hornbeam, but many of the plants have been replaced by hollies, yews, &c., so that the vegetation is mixed.
There is little vegetation save stunted shrubs, such as the mimosa (which generally marks the river beds), wild pomegranate, and wax heaths, known collectively as Karroo bush.
North of the railway line, hedged in between Afghanistan and the plains of the Indus, stretch the long ridges of rough but picturesque highlands, which embrace the central ranges of the Suliman system (the prehistoric home of the Pathan highlander), where vegetation is often alpine, and the climate clear and bracing and subject to no great extremes of temperature.
On all the passes into Tibet vegetation reaches to about 17,500 ft., and in August they may be crossed in ordinary years up to 18,400 ft.
The vegetation of the western part of the plain and of the hottest zone of the western mountains thus becomes closely allied to, or almost identical with, that of the drier parts of the Indian peninsula, more especially of its hilly portions; and, while a general tropical character is preserved, forms are observed which indicate the addition of an Afghan as well as of an African element, of which last the gay lily Gloriosa superba is an example, pointing to some.
On the higher and therefore cooler and less rainy ranges of the Himalaya the conditions of temperature requisite for the preservation of the various species are readily found by ascending or descending the mountain slopes, and therefore a greater uniformity of character in the vegetation is maintained along the whole chain.
On the drier and higher mountains of the interior of the chain, the forests become more open, and are spread less uniformly over the hill-sides, a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation appears, and the number of shrubby Leguminosae, such as Desmodium and Indigofera, increases, as well as Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Gramineae, Cyperaceae and other European genera.
Passing to the westward, and viewing the flora of Kumaon, which province holds a central position on the chain, on the 80th meridian, we find that the gradual decrease of moisture and increase of high summer heat are accompanied by a marked change of the vegetation.
The shrubby vegetation comprises Rosa, Rubus, Indigofera, Desmodium, Berberis, Boehmeria, Viburnum,' Clematis, with an Arundinaria.
The herbaceous vegetation does not differ greatly, generically, from that of the east, and many species of Primulaceae, Ranunculaceae, Cruciferae, Labiatae and Scrophulariaceae occur; balsams abound, also beautiful forms of Campanulaceae, Gentiana, Meconopsis, Saxifraga and many others.
The herbaceous tropical and semi-tropical vegetation likewise by degrees disappears, the Scitamineae, epiphytal and terrestrial Orchideae, Araceae, Cyrtandraceae and Begoniae only occur in small numbers in Kumaon, and scarcely extend west of the Sutlej.
In Kashmir the plane and Lombardy poplar flourish, though hardly seen farther east, the cherry is cultivated in orchards, and the vegetation presents an eminently European cast.
The alpine flora is slower in changing its character as we pass from east to west, but in Kashmir the vegetation of the higher mountains hardly differs from that of the mountains of Afghanistan, Persia and Siberia, even in species.
The general distribution of animal life is determined by much the same conditions that have controlled the vegetation.
Notwithstanding that Algarve is hotter than Alemtejo, a profuse vegetation takes away much of the tropical effect.
At their feet and in their lower valleys the heat is intense and the vegetation is tropical.
In the tropical yungas the ground is covered with decaying vegetation, and malaria and fevers are common.
Owing to the diversities in altitude the flora of Bolivia represents every climatic zone, from the scanty Arctic vegetation of the lofty Cordilleras to the luxuriant tropical forests of the Amazon basin.
In the Lower Sonoran belt, soapweed, acacias (Palo Verde or Parkinsonia torreyana), agaves, yuccas and dasylirions, the creosote bush and mesquite tree, candle wood, and about seventy-five species of cactuses - among them omnipresent opuntiae and great columnar " Chayas " - make up a striking vegetation, which in its colours of dull grey and olive harmonizes well with the rigidity and forbidding barrenness of the plains.
Tree vegetation, which reaches up as high as 6500 and 8150 ft., the latter limit on the north and west, consists of magnificent forests of birch, poplar, aspen, and Coniferae, such as Pinus cembra, Abies sibirica, Larix sibirica, Picea obovata, and so on, though the fir is not found above 2500 ft., while the meadows are abundantly clothed with brightlycoloured, typical assortments of herbaceous plants.
The general appearance of the surface is arid and desolate, partly because of the volcanic remains, and partly because of the scanty rainfall, which is insufficient to support vegetation other than that of the desert except in the deeper mountain valleys.
A deity who sent the fertilizing rains would come to be regarded as a god of vegetation, who descended into the earth and whose power worked in the life that wells forth from the earth in plant and tree.
Cybele was usually worshipped in connexion with Attis, as Aphrodite with Adonis, the two being a duality interpreted by the philosophers as symbolic of Mother Earth and her vegetation.
Many of them devour seed, as the corn weevils, Calandra granaria and C. oryzae, and in this way vegetation is severely injured, and its spread seriously checked.
The surface of the atolls is covered with sand, except in a few places where it has been turned into soil through the admixture of decayed vegetation.
To the warmth and moisture brought by this means the coastal region owes its high equable temperature, its heavy rainfall (80-110 in.) and its superb vegetation.
The vegetation on the shores is poor; immense forests, which formerly covered them, are now mostly destroyed.
All these ranges are shorn through transversely by numerous glens and gorges, and, the rainfall being heavy and the exposure favourable, they are densely clothed with vegetation.
In these primeval forests the vegetation is excessively rank; passage has to be forced through thick underwood and creeping plants, between giant trees, whose foliage shuts out the sun's rays; and the land teems with animal and insect life of every form and colour.
The absence of any vegetation beyond grass or scrub is a striking feature common to both Pamir and Chang, but there the resemblance ceases, and the physical conformation of mountain and valley to the east and to the west of the upper sources of the Zarafshan is radically distinct.
The hills, of which Maras in the north is the highest (2760 ft.), are covered with vegetation to their summits.
Isolated tufts or tussocks are also characteristic of steppe - and savanna - vegetation and open places generally in the warmer parts of the earth.
The repeated twisting and untwisting, especially when the upper part of the awn has become fixed in the earth or caught in surrounding vegetation, drives the point deeper and deeper into the ground.
The bamboos are a feature of tropical forest vegetation, especially in the monsoon region.
In the valleys and lowlands the vegetation is dense, but the general appearance of the plateaus is of a comparatively bare country with trees and bushes thinly scattered over it.
These conditions are particularly characteristic of the northern regions; in the south the vegetation on the uplands is more luxuriant.
Vegetation is scanty, but bears, foxes and other Arctic animals, geese, swans, &c., provide means of livelihood for a few Samoyed hunters.
She is the goddess of gardens, especially worshipped in spring and near lowlands and marshes, favourable to the growth of vegetation.
It is now represented by the petty town of Sur (about 5,000 inhabitants), built round the harbour at the north end of a peninsula, which till the time of Alexander's siege was an island, without water or vegetation.
The best known and by far the largest division of the Gymnosperms is that of the cone-bearing trees (pines, firs, cedars, larches, &c.), which play a prominent part in the vegetation of the present day, especially in the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere; certain members of this class are of considerable antiquity, but the conifers as a whole are still vigorous and show but little sign of decadence.
Wide areas are often exclusively occupied by conifers, which give the landscape a sombre aspect, suggesting a comparison with the forest vegetation of the Coal period.
The general aspect of the district is that of a flat even country, dotted with clusters of bamboos and betelnut trees, and intersected by a perfect network of dark-coloured and sluggish streams. There is not a hill or hillock in the whole district, but it derives a certain picturesque beauty from its wide expanses of cultivation, and the greenness and freshness of the vegetation.
Another phase in the myth of Dionysus originated in observing the decay of vegetation in winter, to suit which he was supposed to be slain and to join the deities of the lower world.
Ascension was originally destitute of vegetation save on the summit of Green Mountain, which owes its verdure to the mists which frequently enshroud it, but the lower hills have been planted with grasses and shrubs.
It is now generally agreed that Adonis is a vegetation spirit, whose death and return to life represent the decay of nature in winter and its revival in spring.
The ceremony of the Adonia was intended as a charm to promote the growth of vegetation, the throwing of the gardens and images into the water being supposed to procure a supply of rain (for European parallels see Mannhardt).
He is further the god of vegetation generally - Nomios, "god of pastures" (explained, however, by Cicero, as "god of law"), Hersos, " sender of the fertilizing dew."
As the god of agriculture and vegetation he is naturally connected with the course of the year and the arrangement of the seasons, so important in farming operations, and becomes the orderer of time (Horomedon, " ruler of the seasons"), and frequently appears on monuments in company with the Horae.
A small part of the northern Colombia, on the lower courses of the Atrato and Magdalena, extending across the country from the Eastern to the Western Cordilleras with a varying width of 100 to 150 m., not including the lower river basins which penetrate much farther inland, also consists of low, alluvial plains, partly covered with swamps and intricate watercourses, densely overgrown with vegetation, but in places admirably adapted to different kinds of tropical agriculture.
The range is covered with vegetation and its Pacific slopes are precipitous and humid.
The passes across these ranges are comparatively low, but they are difficult because of the precipitous character of their Pacific slopes and the density of the vegetation on them.
The rainfall is heavy in the wet season, causing many of the rivers to spread over extensive areas, but in the dry season the inundated plains become dry, the large rivers fed by the snows and rainfall of the Andes return within their banks, the shallow lagoons and smaller streams dry up, vegetation disappears, and the level plain becomes a desert.
The alternating wet and dry seasons are likewise to be found on the Pacific coastal plain, though this region is not entirely dry and vegetation never dries up as on the llanos.
These plains include the extensive llanos of the Orinoco tributaries where coarse, hardy grasses and occasional clumps of palms are almost the only vegetation to be seen.
Boo Jurassic 4000 1400 2000 Trias 5000 Permian 2600 600 Carboniferous woo 700 Series Beaufort Series Ecca Series Dwyka Series the eastern coast-lands the vegetation becomes distinctly subtropical.
Where in this article the term " evaporation " is used alone, it is to be understood to include absorption by vegetation.
In conformity with the above-mentioned convention (by which compensation water is determined as a certain fraction of the average flow during the three driest consecutive years) the available supply or flow from a given area is still understood to be the average annual rainfall during those years, less the corresponding evaporation and absorption by vegetation.
Upon such areas the Springs loss by percolation into the ground, not retrieved in and the form of springs above the point of interception may be neglected, and the only loss to the stream is that already considered of re-evaporation into the air and of absorption by vegetation.
At the lower lips or at the most permeable parts of these basins or channels such rainfall as does not flow over the surface, or is not evaporated or absorbed by vegetation, and does not, while still below ground reach the level of the sea, issues as springs, and is the cause of the continued flow of rivers and streams during prolonged droughts.
That supply, so far as it is not evaporated or absorbed by vegetation, passes away by the streams or rivers, or sinks into the ground.
Thus natural or artificial surfaces which are completely permeable to rainfall may become almost impermeable when protected by surface water from drought and frost, and from earth-worms, vegetation and artificial disturbance.
Their food consists of marine vegetation, to obtain which they dive beneath the water, where they are able to remain, without coming to the surface to breathe, for a very considerable time.
The more level parts of Bombay consist of five well-demarcated tracts - Sind, Gujarat, the Konkan, the Deccan, and the Carnatic. Sind, or the lower valley of the Indus, is very flat, with but scanty vegetation, and depending for productive ness entirely on irrigation.
The plains of the Deccan and Khandesh are watered by large rivers, but as the rainfall is uncertain, they are generally, during the greater part of the year, bleak and devoid of vegetation.
Frazer in England have amply demonstrated the enduring influence exercised on popular thought and custom by certain primitive forms of vegetation worship, of which the most noteworthy example is the so-called mysteries of Adonis.
Before it reaches the plains it receives a great number of small streams from impenetrable, saturated and much broken mountainous districts, where the dense and varied vegetation seems to fight for every square foot of ground.
There is no arboreal vegetation on the Pamir, except a few willows and tamarisks along the rivers.
In the gorges and on the better-watered slopes of the mountains the herbaceous vegetation becomes luxuriant.
The drier southern slopes are quite devoid of arboreal vegetation.
The meadows are clothed with a rich vegetation - numberless Paeoniae, Scabiosae, Convolvulaceae, Campanulae, Eremurus, Umbelliferae, Gallium, Rosaceae, Altheae, Glycyrrhizae, Scorodosma foetida and Gramineae.
Large areas are wholly destitute of vegetation, and after crossing loo m.
In spring, however, the 'steppe assumes quite another aspect, being clothed, except where the sands are shifting, with an abundance of vegetation.
In the desert regions vegetation is, of course, extremely scanty, being restricted almost entirely to the tamarisk, Elaeagnus, tussock grass, and a few Salsolaceae.
But as the slopes of the mountains are ascended the rainfall becomes more copious and grass makes its appearance, together with a few species of arboreal vegetation, such as the juniper.
In connexion with the objection based upon the sub-boreal character of the regions which were the cradle of the Aryans, as proved by the so-called palaeontology of the Aryan languages, it may be observed that by the end of the Glacial, and during the earlier Lacustrine (Post-Glacial) period, the vegetation of Turkestan and of Central Asia was quite different from what it is now.
Artemis was naturally also a goddess of trees and vegetation.
The state is poorly watered and covered with a scanty vegetation suitable for pasturage only.
The vegetation presents the characteristics of an Arctic European type, and is tolerably uniform throughout the island, the differences even on the tableland being slight.
A dense vegetation of iron-wood (Cordia) and other trees and shrubs, together with a forest of coco-nut palms, covers its surface.
The excrement from this large colony has changed the carbonate of lime in the soil and the coral nodules on the surface into phosphates, to the extent in some cases of 60-70%, thus forming a valuable deposit, beneficial to the vegetation of the island itself and promising commercial value.
Climate.-The climate of the state is of a continental type, with great annual variations of temperature and a rainfall which, though generally sufficient for the needs of vegetation, is considerably less than that of the Atlantic Coast or the Mississippi Valley.
The basalts are submarine flows which formed the basis of the land upon which grew the vegetation which gave rise to the coals; the effusion of dolerite which covered up the Coal formation was subaerial.
There is a rich tropical vegetation, and a number of considerable streams water the island.
The formation of the larger islands is volcanic, their surface rugged, their vegetation luxuriant, and their appearance very 1 The notation n!
The vegetation is mostly of a tropical Indo-Malayan character - thick jungle with great trees covered with creepers and epiphytes.
As stated above, Austria is a very mountainous country and the mountains are frequently covered with vegetation to a great elevation.
These contain reptilian remains, and also clear imprints of leaves of the Glossopteris indica, as well as other indications of an ancient vegetation.
The vegetation on the western side of the island is much less dense, often appearing as scattered clumps of trees on savannah-like plains rather than continuous forest; while in the south-west, where the rainfall is very scanty, the vegetation is largely of fleshy-leaved and spiny plants - aloes and cacti (the latter introduced), with several species of Euphorbia, as well as numerous lianas, one of which (Intisy) yields india-rubber.
The vegetation of the forests, the abundant epiphytes, the treemosses, the filmy ferns and the viviparous character of many of the ferns, show clearly how abundant the rainfall is in the eastern forest region.
These have given quite a new aspect to the vegetation, while bright colour is imparted by species of Bougainvillea and Poinsettia.
The rainfall is heavy and vegetation abundant.
He is a Spencerian, or a believer in the universal prevalence of the faith in an " All-Father," or he looks everywhere for gods who are " spirits of vegetation."
Frazer, the human representatives or animal representatives, in the rites, of the spirit of vegetation; of the corn spirit; of the changing seasons, winter or summer, have been developed into many forms of gods, with appropriate myths, explanatory of the magic, and of the sacrifice of the chief performer.
These human beings are often sacrificed, for various reasons, actual or hypothetical, and gods and heroes are almost as likely to be explained as spirits of vegetation now, as they were likely to become solar mythological figures in the system of Max Muller.
Thus the ghost of the hero or medicine man of a kin or tribe may be raised to divine rank, while again - the doctrine of spirits once developed, and spirits once allotted to the great elemental forces and phenomena of nature, sky, thunder, the sea, the forests - we have the beginnings of departmental deities, such as Agni, god of fire; Poseidon, god of the sea; Zeus, god of the sky - though in recent theories Zeus appears to be regarded as primarily the god of the oak tree, a spirit of vegetation.
For the new theory of vegetation spirits and corn spirits see The Golden Bough.
The vegetation of Africa follows very closely the distribution of heat and moisture.
Characteristic of the Sahara is the date-palm, which flourishes where other vegetation can scarcely maintain existence, while in the semi-desert regions the acacia (whence is obtained gum-arabic) is abundant.
The more humid regions have a richer vegetation - dense forest where the rainfall is greatest and variations of temperature least, conditions found chiefly on the tropical coasts, and in the west African equatorial basin with its extension towards the upper Nile; and savanna interspersed with trees on the greater part of the plateaus, passing as the desert regions are appNoached into a scrub vegetation consisting of thorny acacias, &c. Forests also occur on the humid slopes of mountain ranges up to a certain elevation.
In the swamp regions of north-east Africa the papyrus and associated plants, including the soft-wooded ambach, flourish in immense quantities - and little else is found in the way of vegetation.
The fauna again shows the effect of the characteristics of the vegetation.
The soil is of various kinds, loam, clay, sand and peat; most of it is sufficiently fertile, though in the lower portions there are barren patches where the scanty vegetation is covered with an ochreous deposit.
Upon hatching, the young, which differ from the adult in possessing long antennae and a pair of powerful fossorial anterior legs, fall to the ground, burrow below the surface, and spend a prolonged subterranean larval existence feeding upon the roots of vegetation.
The vegetation is very much like that of southern Europe, but in consequence of the great humidity and the mild climate almost tropically luxuriant, and the forests from the shore of the sea up to an altitude of nearly 5000 ft.
A still more marked effect of the preponderance of rainfall in the western half of the chain is seen in the aspect of the vegetation.
FloraThe vegetation of Spain ezhibits a variety in keeping with the differences of climate just described.
A peculiar character is imparted to the vegetation of this province by the growth over large tracts of evergreen shrubs and large herbaceous plants belonging to the Cistineae and Labiatae.
On the lofty parameras of Soria and other parts of Old Castile the vegetation has an almost alpine character.
In the maritime parts of Malaga and Granada the vegetation is of almost tropical richness and beauty, while in Murcia, Alicante and Almeria the aspect is truly African, fertile oases appearing in the midst of rocky deserts or barren steppes.
A peculiar vegetation, consisting mainly of low shrubs with fleshy glaucous leaves (mule crithnioides, &c.), covers the swamps of the Guadalquivir and the salt-marshes of the south-west coast.
The Mediterranean province is that in which the vegetation agrees most closely with that of southern France and the lowlands i By conversion from Tb.
On the lower slopes of the mountains and on all the parts left uncultivated the prevailing form of vegetation consists of a dense growth of shrubs with thick leathery leaves, such as are known to the French as maquis, to the Italians as macchic, and to the Spaniards as monte bajo,2 shrubs which, however much they resemble each other in external appearance, belong botanically to a great variety of families.
The northern maritime province, in accordance with its climate, has a vegetation resembling that of central Europe.
Besides the date-palm the dwarf-palm grows spontaneously in some parts of the south, but it nowhere makes up a large element of the vegetation.
Their seaward slopes often bear a considerable amount of vegetation.
It is a rugged, rocky, barren waste, scored with khors or wadis, along whose beds there is scanty vegetation.
In the deserts north of Khartum vegetation is almost confined to stunted mimosa and, in the less arid districts, scanty herbage.
The seeds of life which continued floating in the air were carried down with the rains and produced vegetation.
They contain much clay and marls, non-absorbent and subject to such excessive wash that vegetation cannot gain a foothold.
The vegetation varies according to the locality.
Batum possesses a cathedral, finished in 1903, and the Alexander Park, with sub-tropical vegetation.
Flora and Faunx.-Although the vegetation of the Nicobars has received much desultory attention from scientific observers, it has not been subjected to a systematic examination by the Indian Forest Department like that of the Andamans, and indeed the forests are quite inferior in economic value to those of the more northerly group; besides fruit trees - such as the coco-nut (Cocos nucifera), the betel-nut (Areca catechu), and the mellori (Pandanus leeram) - a thatching palm (Nipa fruticans) and various timber trees have some commercial value, but only one timber tree (Myristica irya)would be considered first-class in the Andamans.
Studer (Crustacea of the Gazelle, 1882) records Balanus amphitrite (Darwin?) from roots and stems of mangroves in the Congo, where, he says, " it follows the mangroves as far as their vegetation extends along the stream, to six sea-miles from the mouth."
The absence of vegetation on its shores, due to the scanty rainfall and general want of fresh water - except in the neighbourhood of springs like `Ain Feshkhah and `Ain Jidi, where a luxuriant subtropical vegetation is found - accounts for the story that no plant could live in the poisonous air which broods over the sea.
The vegetation which prevails among the older schistose rocks of the west and extreme south presents a totally different appearance to that which occurs in the more settled districts of the east.
The western vegetation, as compared with that of the east, presents as marked a contrast as do the prevailing rocks upon which it flourishes.
The mountain slopes and ravines of the east have a well-marked vegetation.
The nest of grass, leaves, or where vegetation is scanty of stones or rubbish, is placed on the ground or in holes.
Fungi were no doubt abundant among Palaeozoic vegetation.
We must bear in mind that throughout the Palaeozoic period, and indeed far beyond it, vascular plants, so far as the existing evidence shows, were represented only by the Pteridophyta, Pteridosperms and Gymnosperms. Although the history of the Angiosperms may probably go much further back than present records show, there is no reason to suppose that they were present, as such, amongst the Palaeozoic vegetation.
Our knowledge of vegetation older than the Carboniferous is still far too scanty for any satisfactory history of the Palaeozoic Floras to be even attempted; a few, however, of the facts may be advantageously recapitulated in chronological order.
The evidence for terrestrial Silurian vegetation is still dubious; apart from some obscure North American specimens, the true nature of which is not established, Potonie has described well-characterized Pteridophytes (such as the fern-like Sphenopteridium and Bothrodendron among Lycopods) from supposed Silurian strata in North Germany; the horizon, however, appears to be open to much doubt, and the specimens agree so nearly with some from the Lower Carboniferous as to render their Silurian age difficult of credence.
Considering the comparative meagreness of the Devonian record, we can scarcely doubt that the vegetation of that period, if adequately known, would prove to have been practically as rich as that of the succeeding age.
During the earlier part of the Carboniferous epoch the vegetation of the world appears to have been remarkably uniform; while the deposition of the Coal Measures, however, was in progress, a differentiation of floral regions began.
The sketch given above extends, for the later periods, to the vegetation of the northern hemisphere only.
Our aim is not simply to give a summary of the most striking botanical features of the several floras that have left traces in the sedimentary rocks, but rather to attempt to follow the different phases in the development of the vegetation of the world, as expressed in the contrasts exhibited by a comparison of the vegetation of the Coal period forests with that of the succeeding Mesozoic era up to the close of the Wealden period.
In the succeeding Permian period the vegetation retained for the most part the same general character; some of the Carboniferous genera died out, and a few new types made their appearance.
This flora had a wide distribution in North America, Europe and parts of Permian vegetation of the north, but differs from it to such an extent as to constitute a distinct flora.
We must begin by briefly considering this southern Palaeozoic province if we would trace the Mesozoic floras to their origin, and obtain a connected view of the vegetation of the globe as it existed in late Palaeozoic times and at the beginning of the succeeding era.
It is, in short, clear that the Culm flora, as we know it in the northern hemisphere, existed in the extreme south, and it is probable that during the earlier part of the Carboniferous period the vegetation of the world was uniform in character.
On the other hand, the plant-beds of the Permo-Carboniferous age in South Africa, South America, India and Australia demonstrate the existence of a widely distributed vegetation wh i ch agrees in age with the Upper Carboniferous and of the beds in which Glossopteris and other genera make FIG.
This continental area has been described as " Gondwana Land," a tract of enormous extent occupying an area, part of which has since given place to a southern ocean, while detached masses persist as portions of more modern continents, which have enabled us to read in their fossil plants and ice-scratched boulders the records of a lost continent in which the Mesozoic vegetation of the northern hemisphere had its birth.
The genera Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Stigmaria, or Calamites, which played so great a share in the vegetation of the same age in the northern hemisphere, have not been recognized among the Palaeozoic forms of India, but examples of Sigillaria, Lepidodendron and Bothrodendron are known to have existed in South Africa in the Permo-Carboniferous era.
We may next inquire what types occur in the Glossopteris flora agreeing more or less closely with members of the rich PermoCarboniferous vegetation of the north.
The Coal-bearing strata which occupy a considerable area in China (Map A, II.), contain abundant samples of a vegetation which appears to have agreed in their main features with the Permo-Carboniferous floras of the northern hemisphere.
These post-Permian floras, as represented by the Upper Gondwana beds of India and corresponding strata in Australia, South Africa, and South America, differ but slightly from the northern floras, and point to a uniformity in the Rhaetic and Jurassic vegetation which is in contrast to the existence of two botanical provinces during the latter part of the Palaeozoic period.
Our knowledge of the Triassic vegetation is far from extensive; this is no doubt due in part to the fact that the conditions under which the Triassic rocks were deposited were not favourable to the existence of a luxuriant vegetation.
Passing over the few known species of plants from the middle Trias (Muschelkalk) to the more abundant and more widely spread Upper Triassic species as recorded from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, North America and elsewhere, we find a vegetation characterized chiefly by an abundance of Ferns and Cycads, exhibiting the same general facies as that of the succeeding Rhaetic and Lower Jurassic floras.
A comparative view of the plants found in various parts of the world, in beds ranging from the Upper Trias to the top of the Jurassic system, reveals a striking uniformity in the vegetation both in northern and southern latitudes during this long succession of ages.
It is impossible to consider in detail this long period in the history of plant-evolution, but we may briefly pass in review the most striking features of the vegetation as exhibited in the dominant types of the various classes of plants.
The latter genus ranges from Upper Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks; it occurs in India, Australia, and elsewhere in the " Gondwana Land " vegetation, as well as in Palaeozoic rocks of Asia Minor, in Permian rocks of Siberia, and in Jurassic plant-beds of Italy.
There are, however, several forms which it is reasonable to include in the Araucarieae; that this family was to the fore in the vegetation of the Jurassic period is unquestionable.
Starting with the Permo-Carboniferous vegetation, and omitting for the moment the Glossopteris flora, we find a comparatively homogeneous flora of wide geographical range, consisting to a large extent of arborescent lycopods, calamites, and other vascular cryptogams, plants which occupied a place comparable with that of Gymnosperms and Angiosperms in our modern forests; with these were other types of the greatest phylogenetic importance, which serve as finger-posts pointing to lines of evolution of which we have but the faintest signs among existing plants.
Other types, again, which may be referred to the Gymnosperms, played a not unimportant part in the Palaeozoic vegetation.
Passing higher up the geological series, we find but scanty records of the vegetation that existed during the closing ages of the Permian period, and of the plants which witnessed the beginning of the Triassic period we have to be content with the most fragmentary relics.
It is in rocks of Upper Triassic and Rhaetic age that abundant remains of rich floras are met with, and an examination of the general features of the vegetation reveals a striking contrast between the Lower Mesozoic plants and those of the Palaeozoic period.
Arborescent Pteridophytes are barely represented, and such dominant types as Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Calamites and Sphenophyllum have practically ceased to exist; Cycads and Conifers have assumed the leading role, and the still luxuriant fern vegetation has put on a different aspect.
The change to this newer type of vegetation was no doubt less sudden than it appears as read from palaeobotanical records, but the transition period between the Palaeozoic type of vegetation and that which flourished in the Lower Mesozoic era, and continued to the close of the Wealden age, was probably characterized by rapid or almost sudden changes.
In the southern hemisphere the Glossopteris flora succeeded a Lower Carboniferous vegetation with a rapidity similar to that which marked the passage in the north from Palaeozoic to Mesozoic floras.
This apparently rapid alteration in the character of the southern vegetation took place at an earlier period than that which witnessed the transformation in the northern hemisphere.
The appearance of a new type of vegetation in India and the southern hemisphere was probably connected with a widespread lowering of temperature, to which reference has already been made.
It was from this Glossopteris flora that several types gradually migrated across the equator, where they formed part of the vegetation of more northern regions.
The difference between the Glossopteris flora and those which have left traces in the Upper Gondwana rocks of India, in the Wianamatta and Hawkesbury beds of Australia, and in the Stormberg series of South Africa is much less marked than that between the PermoCarboniferous flora of the northern hemisphere and the succeeding Mesozoic vegetation.
It was at the close of the Wealden period that a second evolutionary wave swept over the vegetation of the world.
Unfortunately, our knowledge of the later floras in the southern hemisphere is very incomplete, but a similar transformation appears to have characterized the vegetation south of the equator.
Physical conditions no doubt played an important part, but whatever cause may have had the greatest share in disturbing the equilibrium of evolutionary forces, it would seem that the apparently sudden appearance of Cycads and other types at the close of the Palaeozoic period made a widespread and sudden impression on the whole character of the vegetation.
At a later stage - in postWealden days - it was the appearance of Angiosperms, probably in northern latitudes, that formed the chief motive power in accelerating the transition in the fades of plant-life from that which marked what we have called the Mesozoic floras, to the vegetation of the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary periods.
Among modern floras we find here and there isolated types, such as Ginkgo, Sequoia, Matonia, Dipteris and the Cycads, persisting as more successful survivals which have held their own through the course of ages; these plants remain as vestiges from a remote past, and as links connecting the vegetation of to-day with that of the Mesozoic era.
Sezanne yields Ferns in profusion, mingled with other shade-loving plants such as would grow under the trees in a moist ravine; its vegetation is comparable to that of an island in the tropical seas.
Gardner speaks of the Bournemouth flora as appearing to consist principally of trees or hard-wooded shrubs, comparatively few remains of the herbaceous vegetation being preserved.
For this study it will be most convenient to take next south and central France, for in that area can be found a series of plant-bearing strata in which is preserved a nearly continuous history of the vegetation from Upper Eocene down to Pliocene.
Among the types of vegetation which make their appearance in Europe during the Oligocene period may be mentioned the Conifers Libocedrus salicornioides, several species of Chamaecyparis and Sequoia, Taxodium distichum and Glyptostrobus europaeus.
No doubt this amber flora is still imperfectly known, but it is valuable as giving a good idea of the vegetation, during Oligocene times, of a mixed wood of pine and oak, in which there is a mixture of herbaceous and woody plants, such as would now be found under similar conditions.
It should not be forgotten, however, that an Arctic flora is mainly distinguishable from a temperate one by its poverty and dwarfed vegetation, its deciduous leaves and small fruits, rather than by the occurrence of any characteristic genera or families.
Vegetation is luxuriant in the valleys, which are well watered with streams and, from their seaward termination in small bays, are themselves known as "bays."
Adjacent to the town is an arid plain without vegetation other than mimosa thorns.
Either by rapid growth of vegetation, or by subsequent percolation of organic solutions, most of the alkalis and the lime have been carried away.
The euphorbia trees and other vegetation on the lower terrace are of small size and apparently of recent origin.
Wallace, "have I seen such gorges, chasms and precipices as abound in the district of Maros" (in the southern peninsula); "in many parts there are vertical or even overhanging precipices five or six hundred feet high, yet completely clothed with a tapestry of vegetation."
Vegetation is extremely rich; but there are fewer large trees than in the other islands of the archipelago.
As in natural vegetation and fauna, so in cultivated products, Celebes, apart from its peculiarities, presents the transitional link between the Asiatic and the Australian regions of the Malayan province.
The climate is much drier than that of Chiapas, and the structures are in a better state of preservation than those of Palenque, but the rank vegetation and the decay of the wooden lintels over the doorways have broken down many of the walls.
There are no streams near the ruins, and the water-supply was derived from cisterns and from a few pools now filled with soil and vegetation.
Papyrus grows in Lake Huleh, and rice and cereals thrive on its shores, whilst below the Sea of Galilee the vegetation is almost tropical.
The glaciated rocks of the glen are clothed with vegetation of peculiar luxuriance, flourishing in the mild climate which has given Glengarriff its high reputation as a health resort for those suffering from pulmonary complaints.
Think of the possibilities if we could reduce pollination of weeds and intrusive vegetation.
It was strewn with loose gravel and stone, with occasional clumps of hardy vegetation mixed with larger boulders.
Its rock foundation frequently broke through the vegetation in jagged ledges.
The view of the barn is obscured by vegetation now.
Entering almost Alpine vegetation the weather can change quite dramatically in just a few hundred meters.
To determine the direct effects of gaseous ammonia on semi-natural vegetation close to point sources.