Compared with the climate and tree-limits, the
cultivation of corn does not go so high in the Alps as it does toward
the north; for it ceases about with the beech in the Alps, and grazing
is the regular pursuit in the region of firs; while in Scandinavia,
the beech only goes to 59 degrees, and corn-culture to 70
degrees--that is, as far as the conifers. Corn succeeds in the latter
under a mean temperature below the freezing-point, while in the Alps
it ceases at 41 degrees Fahrenheit. The cause of this is the hot
though short summer of the north. The Alps have maize and the vine,
which will not grow around the Scandinavian mountains; the meadows are
throughout richer in the Alps, and grazing is therefore much more
extensively pursued.'
The peculiarities and comparisons afforded by other countries, are not
less interesting than those we have selected, and we might multiply
instances, if space permitted. Enough, however, have been adduced to
shew that the mode of accounting for differences of vegetation is so
far satisfactory, that it appears to be in perfect accordance with
discoverable natural laws; and it is no longer a surprise or mystery
to find plants of Southern Russia and of Asia Minor on the high
table-lands of Spain; or that the effects of an unvarying temperature,
as at Quito, in the table-land of Peru, are to cause the culture of
wheat to cease at the mean temperature of Milan, and woods to
disappear at the mean of Penzance.
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