The geographical distribution of animals and plants (Volume 1).

  • Charles Pickering
Date:
1854-1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geographical distribution of animals and plants (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    In the following pages, the species unknown in Egypt are inserted in notes. The chronological order is thus preserved, while the remarks are rendered capable of indefinite extension. This permits other countries to be included; and the plants and animals introduced by Polynesians and aboriginal Americans along the isles and shores of the Pacific, to be brought under investigation in connexion with their native names. The observations embraced in this and the preliminary chapters, are to be regarded as an introduction to the volume on Geographical Distribution prepared during the voyage of the Expedition. The ground must first be cleared of sources of error, before we can arrive at a view of the real order of Nature. 1. THE NATURAL CONDITION OF EGYPT. To a stranger accustomed to lands clothed with vegetation, Egypt presents a most uninviting aspect. An upland waste of bare light- coloured soil, save only upon the bottom of the narrow trench formed by the river and within reach of its overflow. After leaving the vicinity of the Mediterranean, this interminable waste appears on a general view to be entirely devoid of vegetation: but plants can be found by searching for them; and these Desert plants, of less than a hundred kinds, and in general not remarkable in their appearance, constitute all that is Botanically interesting in the flora of Egypt. In striking contrast with the Desert, the bottom of the river-valley, or the river-flats, have been always thickly covered with grasses and other herbaceous and humble plants. Traces of the original growth may still be distinguished: the species being few, and of European affinity; and notwithstanding the warm latitudes, Tropical forms, even in the Thebaid, are rare and inconspicuous. In these two phases of Egyptian vegetation, the only tree appears to have been a willow (Salix), growing sparingly along the river^ brink; and perhaps the only shrubs, an occasional tamarisk, and a low bushy Acacia, both belonging to the Desert. On closer examination, the powdery soil i& found to be devoid of Mosses, Ferns, and Lichens (the exceptions being, two or three Mosses in the walls of cisterns, the Adiantum capillus veneris along the Mediterranean, and a few Lichens in elevated situations, chiefly on the tops of the Pyramids): other tribes abounding in Europe are also
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