Vegetation

“ But beneath the mass of new and ambitious vegetation that marks the successive growths of the forest eras, and leaves as it falls mouldering heaps and decaying fragments, ever spring forth the scattered blossoms of half buried plants that cling tenaciously to their native soil, and never can be eradicated. ”

“ There is such a superabundance of vegetation, the plants so crammed together, one on the top of the other, as it were, all untidy, fat with moisture, and of such deep, coarse, blackish-green tones that they give the scenery a heavy leaden appearance instead of the charming beauty of more delicate tints of less tropical vegetation. ”

“ Everywhere, save on these dark patches of waste land, the vegetation was on the boldest scale imaginable, the magnitude of the trees being simply beyond the comprehension of him who had never seen them, while some of even the largest were adorned with beautiful flowers, making them seem like gardens of themselves. ”

“ Strange plants, with pulpy leaves and brilliant flowers, send forth long green lines, having no visible beginning or end, which cling to the sand and weave over it a network of vegetation, binding together the billowy dunes. ”

“ The vegetation all around us is rank and strange; strong grass up to our knees, and dense creepers and thorn-bushes retard our progress. Here are the mouldering trunks of giant trees uprooted by the wind, there living trees standing strong and unshaken. But as we advance we come gradually to a more arid stretch, and green vegetation gives place to a rocky region, broken into crevices and chasms. ”

“ The deeper it descends, the ranker and denser grows the vegetation, which, sprouting from the crannies and fissures of the rocks, spreads a green veil over the roaring or murmuring stream in the tremendous chasm below. ”

“ The vegetation astonishes a northern lover of nature; all is so strange. Save the rose, here is not a tree, not a shrub, an herb, nor a weed which I have ever seen growing naturally before. The flora is a conservatory turned out of doors. ”

“ But whatever may have been the special features of its scenery, there can be no doubt of the land's existence. The carbonized plants stand up to tell us of its strange and luxuriant vegetation. We have listened to their story, and suffered them to lead us away into forest, and lake, and sea, to look on the various forms of life, vegetable and animal, which abounded in that far-distant age. ”

“ Smaller vegetation grows upward for a time, but later yields to the seductiveness of the clear, calm, coral-reflected water, when the bright, tender tips of these become fondled, as it were, by the gentle ripples, adding more attractiveness to this unusual scene of natural beauty. ”

“ When we think of the great forests of the tropics, all overgrown with luxuriant vegetation, we may remember that those tangles of vines and trees and strange growths are our friends no less than the grass and bushes in our dooryard. ”

“ Above this level, where the virgin soil has not been yet reclaimed, or where the winds of winter bring down freezing currents from the mountains through a gap or gully of the lower hills, a tangled growth of heaths and arbutus, and pines, and rosemarys, and myrtles, continue the vegetation, till it finally ends in bare grey rocks and peaks some thousand feet in height. ”

“ Action Of Vegetable Life.—The preliminary condition to vegetation is the formation of soil, but once started, vegetation aids greatly in the decomposition of rocks. Some forms of vegetation, as the lichens, have apparently the faculty of growing on the bare surface of rocks, but the higher order requires at least a little soil. The vegetation acts by shading the surface and thus rendering the action of water more effective, by mechanically separating the rock particles by means of its penetrating roots and by the positive solvent action of the root juices. ”

“ The vegetation that grew on this marvelous planet, although analogous to our terrestrial trees and herbs—having roots, trunks and branches—was entirely of different order. These forms were a combination of vegetable and animal kingdoms, because of their construction and sensitiveness. I noticed, for example, trees whose leaves changed color several times a day, some others which emitted extraordinary sounds, while still others shrank and expanded instantaneously. ”

“ Although the world of vegetation is the truth of the geological image of Nature, the animal again the higher truth of the vegetable, yet the mountains and the flooded land persist as the solid basis of trees, shrubs, and flowers, which in their turn do not lose their existence alongside the world of animals. ”

“ As we come northward, and if we could travel continuously through the forest, we should lose first the epiphytes, then most of the lianes, and finally all the condition of vegetation crowding into every inch of space suitable for it. While trees in our virgin forests are as thick as they can be, the forest floor is open and on it grow only a few herbs that will stand lack of sunshine. ”

“ What is said of the dissemination of fish, shells, and reptiles may be consistently said of vegetation.
The earth is filled with the seed of every plant and tree and shrub that ever sprang into life in any place, clime or time. Dig to whatever depth [76] you will, the substance you throw out, whether earth or stone, when exposed to the air, will produce some growth of vegetation. Frequently something entirely new and different from the surrounding vegetation. ”

“ So the inexorable and relentless processes of nature work over the materials found in these plant communities, the results of which are the dominant types of vegetation in the world to-day. With this understanding of the part they play in plant distribution we may now consider a few of the most widely recognized plant societies and see how they have affected the vegetation, sometimes even the history of the regions in which they are found. ”

“ We have now glanced at the most distinctive of the plant formations which we meet with in our own country, and find that they accompany extreme conditions relating to water and soil: it remains to return to the consideration of the vegetation which develops under conditions of a more normal character—on ordinary soils, in fact, which are neither very wet nor very dry. ”

“ Every climate, and every soil, has some peculiarity which influences its plants; and every plant seems to be subservient to some great and important object. From the brilliant profusion of vegetation in some countries, down to the stunted lichen, which just colours the rocks in others, every change points out the beneficence of the Creator ”

“ Vegetation of all sorts acts in a similar way, either in forming soil and assisting in breaking up rocks, in filling up shallow lakes, and even, like the mangrove, in reclaiming wide stretches of land from the sea. Plant life, utilizing solar light to combine the inorganic elements of water, soil and air into living substance, is the basis of all animal life. ”

“ How plants are distributed, whether as forest or prairie or thickets or what not, depends upon the response of individual plants and their organs to the conditions about them. The type of vegetation in different parts of the world has been dictated by the success of the survivors in meeting existing conditions and of having met them in the past. ”

“ At the base of the mountains lay a land all green with vegetation, where cultivated fields were visible, and vineyards and orchards and groves, together with forests of palm and all manner of trees of every variety of hue, which ran up the sides of the mountains till they reached the limits of vegetation and the regions of snow and ice. ”

“ Great forests cover the outer ranges of the chain, scandent palms spreading over the lofty trees, whose stems are splendidly furnished with the dark-green foliage of climbing aroids; the ground beneath them is concealed under a rich growth of tree and other ferns, orchids, and Scitamineæ, or broad-leaved plantains. With gradually increasing elevation and falling temperature the character of the vegetation changes. ”

“ The vegetation form of the invading species is often of the greatest importance in determining whether it will become established. The vegetation form represents those modifications which, produced in the original home by competition, i. e., the struggle for existence, are primarily of value in securing and maintaining a foothold. These comprise all structures by means of which the plant occupies a definite space in the air, through which the necessary light and heat reach it, and in the soil, from which it draws its food supply. ”

“ There the vegetation is lush and luxuriant, showing a growth of large forest timber—the trees set thickly, and matted with many parasites, that look like cables coiling around and keeping them together. ”

“ Although these plants occupy but a very subsidiary and unimportant position among the vegetation which surrounds us in our daily walks, and are concealed in isolated patches in the woods and fields by the luxuriance of higher and more conspicuous plants, yet they constitute the sole vegetation of very extensive regions of the earth's surface. Every part of the globe, within a thousand feet of the line of perpetual snow, is redeemed from utter desolation by these plants alone. ”

“ There is every condition of growth—good soil, heat and moisture; and the rapid growth of vegetation is astonishing. Here and there on the mission premises were large beds of the strange sensitive-plant, which at the least disturbance folds its petals together face to face. ”

“ The distinction, therefore, as might be imagined, is very marked between vegetation under such conditions, and vegetation as it displays itself by the banks of rivers, where the abundant grass resists the progress of the fire, and where, moreover, a rich mould is formed by the decay of withered leaves. ”

“ In view of certain investigations which have been made of water flora and fauna for special purposes, I add a few words on the place of the water flora in the economy of Nature. The lower vegetation is of very great importance, especially the microscopic plants, innumerable plantations of which inhabit extensive tracts of all, and especially of northern, lakes. They move around in the water in masses or singly, changing the deep blue color of the spots destitute of organisms into green or dirty yellow. ”

“ The function of the nature spirit of woodland, meadow, and garden, indeed in connection with vegetation generally, is to furnish the vital connecting link between the stimulating energy of the sun and the raw material of the form. ”

“ Where woods have repeatedly grown and perished morasses are in process of time produced, and by their long roots fill up the interstices till the whole becomes for many yards deep a mass of vegetation. ”

“ The latter function is the one which this book is intended to fulfill; it is a primer of forestry. The first five chapters give a brief description of plant physiology and soil formation. These are followed by some pages on the forest's enemies and the forces tending to its destruction. Then comes a consideration of the effect of vegetation on rainfall, drainage, climate, and the purity of the atmosphere. ”

“ Those which inhabit waters with plentiful vegetation, like water-lilies and other luxuriant plants, are generally prettier and more vividly coloured than those which live in swamps and ponds with dark mud, or where the prevailing vegetation has a sombre aspect. ”

“ The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence. And it moved not. A deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts reached us from afar, as though an icthyosaurus had been taking a bath of glitter in the great river. ”

“ Indeed, it is impossible to give any exact idea of the immense variety of the thick-growing plants and of the incessant activity of Nature in their development.{75} The dense vegetation accumulates and piles up, forming, especially on the banks of the streams and rivers, opaque masses, perfectly impenetrable, through which the sun’s rays never pierce. ”

“ The beautifully varied systems of vegetation with which the habitable earth is clothed, springing up in rich, spontaneous abundance; the botanical centres of corresponding latitudes producing resemblance in genera without identity of species ”

“ The family which has most universally pervaded every stage of vegetation is that of Coniferæ; increasing in the number and variety of its genera and species, at each successive change in the climate and condition of the surface of the earth. ”

“ I perceive that those Authors, who explain Vegetation, by saying the Earth imbibes certain Qualities from the Air, and by specific Qualities, and the like, do also lay a great Stress upon the perpendicular Growth of Vegetables; seeming to fansy there is little else necessary to a good Crop, but Room. ”

“ A similar profound transition in vegetation is being forced by man. The native vegetation is rapidly being replaced by selected varieties, and by varieties that take advantage of conditions furnished by man. ”

“ The vegetation of the open places in which the wells are found, consists of grass, Stellaria, Hypericum, Polygonum, Cyperaceæ, Mazus rugosus, Plantago media, etc., all of which are found on the plains. ”

“ The name plant belongs in a general way to all vegetation, from the tiniest spear of grass or creeping flower one sees on the rocks by the brook-side, to the largest and tallest of forest trees.
Plants are divided into numerous groups of families, and the study of the many species belonging to each family, is very interesting.
There are thousands of kinds of grasses, shrubs, and trees, scattered over the different parts of the earth, and the larger portion of them are in some way useful to mankind. ”

“ Many spots, which had been cleared and produced crops, are now neglected, and, as the progress of vegetation here is exceedingly rapid and luxuriant, are verging fast to their original wild, forest-like state. ”