Environment

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.

(2): ( n.) Act of environing; state of being environed.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A term of extensive use in biological science, especially employed to denote the external conditions which go to determine modifications in the development of organic life to the extent often of producing new species.