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

LITERATURE

The Physical Atlqs. Part: By Alexand,q•
Joliustoli. Blackwood.

Another instalment of this elaborate aid 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 progre.s 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 (but improveable) predecessor. It will in
its new and extended form, with all its original
merits yet further developed, cin firm and consoli-
date the high reputation claimed 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
.weep of the zone of tropical grains. In
another •we observe sections showing approxima-
Lively 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 'maintain tops. A
separate division, or minor map, shows in the same
plate the distribution of tea and of the principal
spices in the Eastlndies—pepper, cinnamon, cloves,
and nutmeg—scattered curiously from Papua to
Malaya through the islands of the orientalarchi-
plago. Two other minor maps are likewise in-
troduced in the same comprehensive engraving.
One showing the peculiarities of the distribution of
the principal food plants, fruits, and characteristic
:Tees in Western and Central Europe. The other—
the' distribution of spices, dyes, and other econo-
mical substances growing in the warmer regions of
the globe, together with that of the more important
plants yielding materials for beverages.' The
second plate in Part 11., produced conjointly by
Arthur Henfref and A. Keith Johnston, F. R.S.E.,
lisplays the " Geographical distribution of Indi-
genous Vegetation, together also with the distri-
bution of plants in a perpendicular direction, and
if plants influencing the physiognomy of the vege-
tation of the globe." The Forms of Plants are
lappily enough indicated in the margin by examples
-uch as the cocoa-nut-tree and the pine-apple tree;
the ficus indica, and die saxifraga flagellaris ;
the magnolia and the aster; the fern tree and the
solidagos; the canary pine and the Dragon Tree
Teueritle. In regard to the distribution of Jude-
genous Vegetation, we observe that Messrs. Hen-
Tey and Johnston have consulted as authorities,
in reference to the Frigid Zone, Buch and Wahlen-
Herg • the Torrid Zone, Humboldt, Bonpland, and
Pentland; the Temperate Zone, Hooker, Thomp-
son, Royle, and Jacquemout ; Buch and Smith, in
reference to Teneriffe ; Buch, Schouw, Ramond,
De Candolle, and Wahlenberg, in reference to the
Alps and the Pyrenees. The third and last plate
in this second instalment of the "Physical Atlas"
rives us the " Hyetographic or Rain Map of the
World, with a Specia Map 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
n its new, and enlarged, and revised, and generally
:unproved form, being produced. This same " Hys-
ographic or Rain Map of the, World" is one of the

aiorecurious wonder; in this singular publication.
Inother map of the same kind, a " Hyetographic
'r Rain Map of Europe," to be given in a subse-
quent part of the serial, will complete the popular
iii'ormation in regard to this part of the science of
ueteorology. In illustration of the same study,
is well as iu illustration of the Natural History de-
fiartinent, and of the sections relating to Geology
tud Hydrography, a variety of elaborate plates
•lave yet to make their appearance. But enough
ins already been presented to our notice in these
. .

wo initial portion; of the new and enlarged edition
if the " Physical Atlas" by Alexander Keith
Johnston, to satisfy our judgment that the revision
ud extension of his great work is being conducted
;)3, him in no respect superficially, but with anxious
Aution and profound solicitude that the volume in

is improved shape may continue both in Europe
end in America, the standard and sufficient autho-
rity upon the subject of Physical Geography—a
branch of education which the previous edition of
the work has the glory of having originated.