PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 223 



numerous genera of Cycadece. Unable accurately to delineate 

 the physiognomy of our aging and altering planet according to 

 its present features, I will only attempt to bring prominently 

 forward those characteristics which specially appertain to each 

 individual group of plants. Notwithstanding all the richness 

 and adaptability of our language, the attempt to designate in 

 words, that which, in fact, appertains only to the imitative 

 art of the painter, is always fraught with difficulty. I 

 would also wish to avoid that wearying effect which is almost 

 unavoidably inseparable from a long enumeration of indi- 

 vidual forms. 



We will begin with Palms (15), the loftiest and most 

 stately of all vegetable forms. To these, above all other 

 trees, the prize of beauty has always been awarded by every 

 nation; and it was from the Asiatic palm-world, or the adja- 

 cent countries, that human civilization sent forth the first rays 

 of its early dawn. Marked with rings, and not unfrequently 

 armed with thorns, the tall and slender shaft of this graceful 

 tree rears on high its crown of shining, fan-like, or pinnated 

 leaves, which are often curled like those of some gramineae. 

 Smooth stems of the palm, which I carefully measured, rose 

 to a height of 190 feet. The palm diminishes in size and 

 beauty as it recedes from the equatorial towards the temper- 

 ate zones. Europe owns amongst its indigenous trees only 

 one representative of this form of vegetation, the dwarfish 

 coast palm (Chamcerops), which, in Spain and Italy, is found 

 as far north as 44° lat. The true palm climate has a mean 

 annual temperature of 78° to 81°. 5 Fahr., but the date-palm, 

 which has been brought to us from Africa, and is less beau- 

 tiful than other species of this family, vegetates in the south 

 of Europe in districts whose mean temperature is only from 

 59° to 62° 4' Fahr. Stems of palms and skeletons of elephants 

 are found buried in the interior of the earth in Northern 

 Europe ; their position renders it probable that they were not 

 drifted from the tropics towards the north, but that, in the 

 great revolutions of our planet, climates, and the physiognomy 



