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Alexander von Humboldt: „[Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales]“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1816-Sur_les_lois-8-neu> [abgerufen am 29.03.2024].

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Titel [Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales]
Jahr 1823
Ort Edinburgh
Nachweis
in: The Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1819 12:1/2 (1823), S. 199–201.
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: III.33
Dateiname: 1816-Sur_les_lois-8-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 4
Spaltenanzahl: 6
Zeichenanzahl: 8201

Weitere Fassungen
Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales (Paris, 1816, Französisch)
On the Laws observed in the Distribution of vegetable Forms (London, 1816, Englisch)
Ueber die Gesetze, welche man in der Vertheilung der Pflanzenformen beobachtet. – Auszug aus einer am 5. Febr. 1816. in der Sitzung des Par. Instituts vorgelesenen Abhandlung. Aus dem Franz. der Ann. de Chemie et de Physique, Mars 1816. übersetzt von Dr. Martius (Nürnberg, 1816, Deutsch)
Ueber die Gesetze in der Vertheilung der Pflanzenformen. (Gelesen im franz. Institut am 5ten Hornung 1816) (Jena, 1817, Deutsch)
[Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales] (London, 1819, Englisch)
Humboldt on the Geography of Plants (Edinburgh, 1819, Englisch)
[Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales] (Edinburgh, 1819, Englisch)
[Sur les Lois que l’on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales] (Edinburgh, 1823, Englisch)
Ueber die Beziehungen, welche in der Vertheilung der Pflanzen-Samen beobachtet werden (Frankfurt am Main, 1830, Deutsch)
|198||Spaltenumbruch| Alexander Count Humboldt sub-mitted to the Institute a curious pa-per, on the laws observed in the dis-tribution of vegetable forms over theglobe. Botany, long confined to thedescription of the external forms ofplants, and their artificial classifica-tion, now presents several branches ofstudy, which place it more on a foot-ing with the other sciences. Suchare the distribution of vegetables, ac-cording to a natural method foundedupon the whole part of their structure;their physiology, which displays theirinternal organization; their botanical |199| |Spaltenumbruch|geography, which assigns to each tribeof plants their height, limits, and cli-mate. The terms alpine plants, plantsof hot countries, plants of the sea-shore, are to be found in all lan-guages, even in those of the most sa-vage nations on the banks of the Oro-noko, and prove that the attentionof men has been constantly fixed onthe distribution of vegetables, and ontheir connexion with the tempera-ture of the air, the elevation of thesoil, and the nature of the groundwhich they inhabit. It does not re-quire much sagacity to observe, thaton the slope of the high mountains ofArmenia, vegetables of a different la-titude follow each in succession, likethe climates, superimposed, as it were,upon each other. The vegetables, says M. Humboldt,which cover the vast surface of theglobe, present, when we study theirnatural classes or families, strikingdifferences in the distribution of theirforms. On limiting them to the coun-tries in which the number of the spe-cies is exactly known, and by divid-ing this number by that of the glu-maceæ, the leguminous plants, thelabiated, and the compound, we findnumerical relations which form veryregular series. We see certain formsbecome more common, from theequator towards the pole, like theferns, the glumaceæ, the ericeæ,and the rhododendra. Other forms,on the contrary, increase from thepoles towards the equator, and maybe considered in our hemisphere assouthern forms: such are the rubia-ceæ, the malvaceæ, the euphorbiaceæ,the leguminous, and the compositeplants *. Finally, others attain their
* For the convenience of such of our readers as have not made descriptive botany a particu-lar study, we shall here subjoin the translation of the names of some of the most commonplants which characteristise the tribes or families most frequently the subjects of discussionin Baron Humboldt’s memoir: Junciæ (rushes;) cyperaceæ (hard or moor grasses, cotton-grass;)gramineæ (corn, grasses;) compositæ (dandelions, thistles, sunflower;) leguminosæ or papilionaceæ (vetches, pease, clover;) rubiaceæ (rennet, madder;) euphorbiaceæ (sun-purge, dog’s mercury;)labiatæ (mint, thyme, rosemary;) malvaccæ (mallows, hollyhock;)
|200||Spaltenumbruch|maximum even in the temperate zone,and diminish also towards the equa-tor and the poles; such are the la-biated plants, the amentaceæ, thecruciferæ, and the umbelliferæ. Thegrasses form in England 1-12th, inFrance 1-13th, in North America1-10th, of all the phanerogamousplants. The glumaceæ form in Ger-many 1-7th, in France 1-8th, in NorthAmerica 1-8th, in New Holland, ac-cording to the researches of MrBrown, 1-8th, of the known phane-rogamous plants. The compositeplants increase a little in the northernpart of the new continent; for, ac-cording to the new Flora of Pursch,there is between the parallels of Geor-gia and Boston 1-6th, whereas inGermany we find 1-8th, and in France1-7th, of the total number of the spe-cies, with visible fructification. Inthe whole temperate zone, the glu-maceæ and the composite plants formtogether nearly one-fourth of thephanerogamous plants; the gluma-ceæ, the compositæ, the cruciferæ,and the leguminosæ, together, nearlyone-third. It results from these re-searches, that the forms of organizedbeings are in a mutual dependence;and that the unity of nature is such,that the forms are limited, the oneafter the other, according to constantlaws easy of determination.
The number of vegetable speciesdescribed by botanists, or existing inEuropean herbals, extends to 44,000,of which 6000 are agamous. In thisnumber we had already included 3000new phanerogamous species enume-rated by M. Bonpland and myself.France, according to M. Decandolle,possesses 3645 phanerogamous plants,of which 460 are glumaceæ, 490 com-posite, and 230 leguminous, &c. In|Spaltenumbruch|Lapland there are only 497 phanero-gamous plants; among which are 124glumaceæ, 58 composite, 14 legu-minous, 23 amentaceous, &c. Mr Pursch has made us acquaint-ed with 2000 phanerogamous plantswhich grow between the parallels of35° and 44°; consequently, undermean annual temperatures of 16° and7°. The Flora of North America isa mixture of several Floras. Thesouthern regions give it an abundanceof malvaceæ and composite plants;the northern regions, colder thanEurope, under the same parallel, fur-nish to this Flora abundance of rhodo-dendra, amentaceæ, and coniferæ.The caryophylleæ, the umbelliferæ,and the cruciferæ, are in general morerare in North America, than in thetemperate zone of the Old Continent. These constant relations observedon the surface of the globe, in theplains from the equator to the pole,are again traced in the midst of per-petual snows on the summits of moun-tains. We may admit, in general,that on the Cordilleras of the torridzone, the boreal forms become morefrequent. It is thus that we see pre-vail at Quito, on the summit of theAndes, the ericeæ, the rhododen-dra, and the gramineous plants.On the contrary, the labiatæ, the ru-biaceæ, the malvaceæ, and the eu-phorbiaceæ, then become as rare asthey are in Lapland. But this ana-logy is not supported in the ferns andthe composite plants. The latter a-bound on the Andes, whereas theformer gradually disappear when theyrise above 1800 fathoms in height.Thus the climate of the Andes re-sembles that of northern Europe on-ly with respect to the mean tempera-ture of the year. The repartition of
umbelliferæ (carrot, hemlock, chervil, caraway;) cruciferæ (mustard, cresses, radish, turnip.)The great mass of plants which cover the globe is divided by botanists into phænogamous (those having visible flowers,) and cryptagamous, or agamous (ferns, lichens, mushrooms.)
|201||Spaltenumbruch|heat into the different seasons is en-tirely different, and powerfully influ-ences the phenomena of vegetation.
It has been long known, and it isone of the most interesting results de-rived from the geography of animals,that no quadruped, no terrestrial bird,and, as appears from the researchesof M. Latreille, almost no insect, iscommon to the equatorial regions ofthe two worlds. M. Cuvier is con-vinced, by precise inquiries, that thisrule applies even to reptiles. Hehas ascertained, that the true boaconstrictor is peculiar to America;and that the boas of the Old Continentwere pytons. Among the plants, wemust distinguish between the agamæand the cotyledoneæ; and by consi-dering the latter, between the mono-cotyledons and the dicotyledons.There is no doubt that many of themosses and lichens are to be found atonce in equinoctial America and inEurope. But the case is not the samewith the vascular agamæ as with theagamæ of a cellular texture. Theferns and the lycopodiaceæ do notfollow the same laws with the mossesand the lichens. The former, in par-ticular, exhibit very few species uni-versally to be found; and the ex-amples cited are frequently doubtful.It is absolutely false, although it hasbeen often affirmed, that the ridges ofthe Cordilleras of Peru, the climate ofwhich has some analogy with the cli-mate of France or Sweden, produce si-milar plants. The oaks, the pines, theyews, the ranunculi, the rose-trees,the alchemilla, the valerians, the stel-laria, the draba of the Peruvian andMexican Andes, have nearly the samephysiognomy with the species of thesame genera of North America, Si-beria, or Europe. But all these al-pine plants of the Cordilleras, with-out excepting one among three orfour thousand which we have exa-|Spaltenumbruch|mined, differ specifically from theanalogous species of the temperatezone of the Old Continent.