Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung Ein Abriss der vergleichenden Geographie der Pflanzen

Abstract

FROM the date, and the statement on the title–page that this is an augmented and corrected second edition of a work which was published in 1871, it might be expected that it contains the results of much more, recent investigation; but an examination of the present edition is very disappointing. Indeed, it is doubtful, to say the least, whether it deserves the descriptive title given to it; for the “Quellenschriften und Erlauterungen” do not appear to contain a single additional reference, and it is not easy to discover that it has a claim to be anything more than a reprint, with some trifling alterations, of the original edition of 1871. The author died in 1879, so that one naturally looked to see who was the editor of this edition, and it was only after much seeking that a clue was found in a foot-note on p. 15 of the preface. After the appearance of the “Vegetation der Erde,” A. Grisebach continued to write annual reports on the progress of geographical botany, and these, together with other scattered articles, were published in a collective form in 1880 by his eldest son, under the title, “Gesam-melte Abhandlungen und kleinere Schriften zur Pflanzen-geographie.” From the foot-note in question it appears that this son—a gentleman in the Consular service of his country, and presumably unacquainted, or imperfectly acquainted with botanical literature—edited the new edition of the “Vegetation der Erde,” “based upon the corrections and additions left by the author.” Now it is perfectly certain that Grisebach regarded the annual reports referred to as so many supplements to his greater work, and the substance of which he would doubtless have incorporated therein had he himself prepared a second edition. Since his death, too, considerable additional information on geographical botany has come to light; and, what is more, it has been collected and published in German by Drude, Engler, and others; yet, as already mentioned, the additions and corrections in the present edition are merely trivial, and cannot be said to enhance materially the value of the work. In a footnote to Grisebach's preface to Tchihatcheff's admirable French edition of the original work, reproduced here, it is stated that some additions of Grisebach's thereto are here intercalated in their respective places. This is very good, but why Tchihatcheff's copious annotations and additions, recognised and sanctioned, as it were, by the author himself, should be ignored in a second German edition, is incomprehensible, saving the assumption that both with respect to his father's annual reports and other sources, the son was wholly incapable of doing his father justice. It is a pity that the task of preparing a second German edition was not entrusted to a competent botanist, because the original work, apart from the uncompromising antagonism to Evolution that pervades it, still occupies an undisputed position in modern botanical literature. As it is, the French edition is not merely an advance on the original German—it is incomparably better than the second German edition. It is only, however, fair that some justification of such assertions should be given. Taking the chapter on Oceanic Islands as an example, it may be confidently stated that no additional information is given; yet there is no branch of geographical botany that has advanced more during the last decade than insular. On the other hand Tchihatcheff embodies nearly all that was known up to date. One slight alteration observed in this chapter is—Madeira is stated to be 50 German geographical miles nearer Europe than the Azores, instead of 150, as in the original. Then certain unfounded statements in refutation of the arguments of other botanists concerning the relationships of * insular floras remain uncorrected. Thus, in allusion to Sir Joseph Hooker's demonstration (“Insular Floras” p. 7) that the vegetation of St. Helena has, on the whole, its nearest affinities in South Africa, it is objected, on the authority of Roxburgh, that three out of the five genera named by Hooker were originally introduced into the island from the Cape of Good Hope, whereas an examination of Roxburgh's enumeration of the plants of St. Helena reveals the fact that the indigenous, and endemic, St. Helena species- of the genera in question were unknown to him, and his remarks apply only to actually introduced species. Again, to repeat in 1884 such statements as that the vegetation of Juan Fernandez has little systematic relationship with that of the Chilian or Antarctic floras and that Pringlea anti-scorbutica is restricted to Kerguelen Island is unpardonable, because the contrary is now historical. Defects such as those pointed out are numerous, but as they are mostly due to the state of knowledge fifteen years ago, the author of the work of that date is not to be blamed for them; rather the present editor and publisher for offering the public an old book as new.

Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung. Ein Abriss der vergleichenden Geographie der Pflanzen.

Von A. Grisebach. Zweite vermehrte und berichtigte Auflage. 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 567; Vol. II., pp. 693. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1884.)