The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Physical Atlas. Part 11. By Alexander
Keith Johnston. Blackwood.
Another instalment of this elaborate and labo-
rious production has appeared, and from Part 11.
we recognise yet more plainly the promise given in
Part 1., but more formally and deliberately through
the prospectus, in its progress towards fulfilment.
The new and enlarged edition of "The Physical
Atlas" is no mere reprint of a work brilliantly and
deservedly successful. It is an improvement upon
a very remarkable, and in many respects a very
masterly- (lint improveable) predecessor. It will in
its new and extended form, with ail its original
merits yet further developed, c infirm and consoli-
date the high reputation clainied for it by the mere
novelty of the undertaking at the period of its first
appearance. Three of the splendid plates consti-
tuting each a marvel of admirably digested and
lucidly-arranged information, are comprised in the
second instalment of the serial edition now in course
of publication. The engravings of course being
accompanied with ample but well-compacted pages
of explanatory letterpress. One, the production of
Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., shows the "Dis-
tribution of the most important plants yielding
food in connection with climatal conditions." Bril
liantly coloured, as usual, the plate presents through
the eye to the mind an immediate appreciation of
the peculiarities of this wonderful (apparently con-
fused but really systematic) Distribution. In
one part, we note the broad undulatory
sweep of the zone of tropical grains. In
another we observe sections showing approxima-
tively the distribution of the most important eco-
nomical plants according to altitude in both hemi-
spheres—mosses and berries; oats, rye, and barley ;
wheat and maize ; sugar and cotton ; bananas and
cassava ; and palms. Opposite to this we observe
sections from south to north in Western and Cen-
tral Europe, showing the distribution of the prin-
cipal food plants, also according to altitude—dates;
olives and oranges ; maize ; wheat ; oats and bar-
ley ; potatoes and green vegetables ; up, through
the alpine regions, to the snowy mountain tops. A
sep trate division, or minor map, shows in the same
plate the distribution of tea and of the principal
spices in the East Indies—pepper' cinnamon, cloves,
and nutmeg—scattered curiously from Papua to
Malaya through the islands of the orientafarchi-
pEelago. Two other minor maps are likewise in-
troduced in the same comprehensive engraving.
One showing the peculiarities of the distribution of
tie principal food plants, fruits, and characteristic
trees in Western and Central Europe. The other—
the distribution of spices, dyes, and other econo-
nt ail sunstances growing iu the warmer regions of
the globe, together with that of the more important
plants yielding materials for beverages. The
s cond plate in Part 11., produced conjointly by
Arthur Henfrey and A. Keith Johnston, F.R.S.E.,
displays the " Geographical distribution of Indi-
genous Vegetation, together also with the distri-
. bution of plants in a perpendicular direction, and
of plants influencing the physiognomy of the vege-
tation of the 'globe." The Forms of Plants are
happily enough indicated in the margin by examples
such as the cocoa-nut-tree, and the pine-apple tree;
the ficus indica, and the saxifraga flagellaris ;
the magnolia and the aster; the fern tree and the
solidagos; the canary pine and the Dragon Tree
of Teneritle. In regard to the distribution of Inde-
genous Vegetation, we observe that Messrs. Hen-
trey and Johnston have consulted as authorities,
in reference to the Frigid Zone, Buch and Wahlen-
erg ; the Torrid Zone, Humboldt, Bonpland, and.
Pentland; the Temperate Zone, Hooker, Thomp-
son, R iyle, and Jacquemsut ; Buch and Smith, in
reference to Teneriue ; Buch, &hours, Rarnond,
to Candolle, and Wahlenberg, in reference to the
Alps and the Pyrenees. The third and last plate
in this stem 1 instalment of the "Physical Atlas"
gives us the " Hyetographic or Rain Map of the
Wordy, with a SpJcia Mtp of the Temperature and
Rainfall of India," by A. Keith Johnston, the dis-
tinguished geographer himself, under whose super-
vision the whole of this extraordinary Atlas is again
in its new, and enlarge 1, and revised, and generally
improved forte, being produced. This same "
tugraphic or Rain Map of the Wt r (t" is one of tde
more curious wonders in this singular publication.
Another map of the same kind, a " Hyetographic
or Ria Map of Enrope," to be given in a subse-
quent Rat of the serial, will complete the popular
information in regard to this part of the science of
meteorology. In illustration of the same study,
as well a in illustration of the Natural History de-
partment, an 1 of the sections relating to Geology
and Hy, lrogra phy, a variety of elaborate plates
have yet to in their appearance. But enough
has already he n presented to our no ice in these
two initial portions of the new and enlarged edition
Of the " Poysical Atlas" by Alexander Keith
Johnston, to satisfy our judgment that the revision
;oil extension of his great work is being conducted
by hint in no respect superficially, but \vial anxious
caui and profound solicitude that the volume in
its improved shape may continue both in Europe
America, the standard and sufficient autho-
rity upon the sulject of Physical Geography--a
branch of education which the previous edition of
the work has t e dory of having originated.