346 VIEWS, &C PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



While in Europe the Myrtaceae do not extend northward fur- 

 ther than 46°lat., they penetrate in Australia, Tasmania, New 

 Zealand and the Auckland Islands to 50^° south latitude. 



(32) p. 229 — " Melastomacece" 

 This group comprises the genera Melastoma (Fothergilla 

 and Tococa Aub. and Rhexia (Meriana and Osbeckia), of 

 which we have collected no less than sixty new species in 

 tropical America alone, on both sides of the equator. Bonpland 

 has published a splendid work on the Melastomaceae, in two 

 volumes, with coloured plates. There are species of Rhexia 

 and Melastoma which ascend in the chain of the Andes, as 

 Alpine or Paramos shrubs, to 9600 and even more than 

 11,000 feet above the level of the sea; as for instance Rhexia 

 cernua, R. stricta, Melastoma obscurum, M. aspergillare, and 

 M. lutescens. 



(33) p. 229— " The Laurel-form." 

 To this form belong Laurus, Persea, the Ocoteae, so nume- 

 rous in South America, and, — on account of their physio- 

 gnomic similarity, — Calophyllum, also the splendidly aspiring 

 Mamrnea from the Guttiferse. 



(34) p. 229 — " How instructive to the landscape-painter would 

 be a work which should illustrate the leading forms of vege- 

 tation" 



In order to define with more distinctness what I have here 

 only briefly referred to, I may be permitted to incorporate the 

 following considerations from my sketch of a history of land- 

 scape painting, and of a graphical representation of the phy- 

 siognomy of plants.* 



" All that relates to the expression of the passions and the 

 beauty of the human form has perhaps attained its fullest deve- 

 lopment in the temperate northern zone under the skies of 

 Greece and Italy. The artist, drawing from the depths of imagi- 

 nation, no less than from the contemplation of beings of his 

 own species, derives the types of historical painting alike from 

 unfettered creation and from truthful imitation. Landscape 

 painting, though scarcely a more imitative art, has a more 

 material basis, and a more earthly tendency. It requires 

 for its development a greater amount of various and distinct 

 * Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 453 (Bohn's edition.) 



