Abstract
(Cotinued from page 152)
GERMANY, or rather Central Europe from the Rhine to the Carpathians and from the Baltic to the Alps, is, as to the greater part of it, a continuation of that generally uniform but gradually changing biological region which covers the Russian empire. It is not yet affected by those peculiar western races which either stop short of the Rhine and Rhone or only here and there cross these rivers with a few stragglers; the mountains, however, on its southern border show a biological type different from either of those which limit the Russian portion, indicating in many respects, as I observed in 1869, a closer connection with the Scandinavian and high northern than with the Pyrenean to the west or the Caucasian to the east. The verifying and follow“ing up these indications gives a special interest to the study of “German races, their variations and affinities. In so far as formal specific distinctions are concerned, all plants and animals, with the exception of a few of those whose minute size enables them long to escape observation, may now be considered as well known in Germany as in France and England; and in Germany especially the investigation of anatomical and physiological characters has of late years contributed much to a more correct appreciation of those distinctions and of the natural relations of organic races. But much remains still for the systematic biologist, and especially the zoologist, to accomplish. Among the very numerous floras of the country, both general and local, there are several which have been worked out with due reference to the vegetation of the immediately surrounding regions, but corresponding complete faunas do not appear to exist. A few in some branches have been commenced; but in these, as in the numerous papers on more or less extended local zoology, as far as I can perceive, animals, and especially insects, seem to be considered only in respect of the forms they assume within the region treated of, frequently with a very close critical study of variations or races of the lowest grades, but neglecting all comparison with the forms a species may assume or be represented by in adjoining or distant countries.
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Mr. Bentham's Anniversary Address to the Linnean Society . Nature 4, 170–172 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004170b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004170b0