Book Description

Excerpt from Plant Geography The student of geography soon becomes aware of the vast importance 0 vegetation in human affairs. Dense forests, -gg'barren deserts, or undrained marshes have always necessarily been thinly peopled. Man, especially in the earlier Stages of civilisation, is largely dependent on the crops he can grow in the cleared, drained. And tilled land in his immediate neighbourhood. The wild spices he may collect in the forest of the to ics. Or the surplus produce of his fields, may be the ounda tion of international commerce. Pasturage for cattle, timber for shipbuilding, or a soil suitable for the growth of some particular plant, whether valuable for food, fibre, medicine, or what not, may largely determine the distribution of population or industries within the individual state. The reckless destruction of some wild species which is a source of wealth may prove the com mercial ruin of a district; while its careful conservation may mean prolonged economic progress; and the intro duction of some foreign plant into a region suitable in climate and soil for its cultivation may give a fresh start of prosperity to a land previously but sparsely peopled. 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.