The Distribution Of Vegetation In The United States

Author : Burton Edward Livingston
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331880530
Total Pages : 620 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (85 download)

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Download or read book The Distribution of Vegetation in the United States, as Related to Climatic Conditions (Classic Reprint) written by Burton Edward Livingston and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-20 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Distribution of Vegetation in the United States, as Related to Climatic Conditions The differences in plant life which exist between distant or even between nearby localities must have come under the notice of man in the earliest semicivilized stages of his existence. Human dependence upon the products of the vegetable kingdom has served to maintain throughout all historic time a vivid realization of the vegetational differences encountered with changes of latitude, altitude, and proximity to the sea. The later stages of modern civilization have done extremely little to liberate man from his dependence upon plants, although the development of methods for the preservation and transportation of food has given him greater freedom of movement into the jungle, the polar regions, the desert, and the modern city. Many of the activities of the last 150 years have been such as to increase our interest in the distribution of plants and in the nature of the plant populations which characterize different regions, different soils, or different topographic situations. Innumerable bands of explorers and collectors have penetrated all parts of the world, bringing back materials upon which we have been able to base a knowledge of the flora and the larger aspects of the vegetation of all but the most inaccessible portions of the globe. The extensive introduction of economic and ornamental plants into new regions and even into new continents has awakened an interest in the possibility of still further introductions and in a study of the causes of the success or failure of such as have been made. The increasing value of all the products of the forest has led to the planting of trees on a large scale within their native regions and to the experimental introduction of trees from distant countries, as well as to attempts to improve natural forest stands. The increasing population of the world has augmented the value of its agricultural lands and has given importance to the study of the properties of the soil in their relation to plants. The search for new agricultural regions and for crop plants adapted to the conditions in newly settled areas has led to an interest in natural plant growth as an index of the most promising soils or of the most suitable crops to be cultivated. Hand in hand with this widening utilization of the plant products of the world has gone a rapid development of the scientific study of plants in relation to their natural environment. During the first half of the nineteenth century there was a rapid accumulation of facts regarding the composition of the floras of the outlying portions of the earth, and these facts were almost as rapidly marshaled into an ordered knowledge of the great floristic regions. In this immense task the names of Humboldt, Schouw, Grisebach, de Candolle, Hooker, and Engler are intimately associated with the greatest accomplishments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.