The flora is rich and extensive owing to the great differences of climate. The highland flora of the Alps and Pyrenees is identical with that of the other Alpine lands. The garden of the country is Provence, in the southeastern corner, where eucalyptus, introduced from Australia, thrives as on native soil, besides olive and mulberry. The produce of the soil is naturally in accordance with the diversity of climatic and physical conditions. Between the weather-beaten flats of the north and the azure coast of the south, almost tropical in vegetation; from the vineyards of the Medoc to the Alpine woods and pastures below the per petual snows; from the blooming grasses of Normandy to the wild and desolate plateaux of the Gausses every type of vegetation or cultivation is represented. The forests yield oak, beech, lime, elm, pine, fir and various types of maple.
Political Divisions.— Before the Revolution of 1789 France was divided into general gov ernments, the number of which has varied at different epochs. Under Francis I, by whom they were instituted, there were nine. Under Henry III there were 12. Under Louis XIV the number was fixed at 32, to which a 33d was added by the acquisition of Corsica, under Louis XV. In 1789, when the love of change became paramount, the provinces were not per mitted to escape; and it was then determined that the whole of France, incluclin,g the island of Corsica, should be parceled out into depart ments, and each department subdivided suc cessively into arrondissements, cantons and communes, an arrangement which was actually carried out in 1790. This division has since
maintained its ground, each department being named after the most important physical feature which it contains. The number of departments was originally 83, but it has been at different times increased and decreased. There are now 86 departments and the °territory of 13eHort," a remnant of the department of Haut-Rhin. As the old provinces, though now no longer recognized in legal and other formal docu ments, continue so familiar to the French them selves and are so frequently mentioned, not only by earlier writers, but in the geographical, historical and statistical works of the present day, a list is here given exhibiting those old provinces and the departments now most nearly corresponding to them, with their respective capitals or The names of the modern departments are nearly all borrowed from the physical geography of the country, above all from the water courses. A knowledge of French geography will readily enable one to locate easily the relative position of the departments. .
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