348 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



indication of local limitation. But an extension of the visible 

 horizon, and an acquaintance with the nobler and grander 

 forms of nature, and with the luxuriant fulness of life in 

 tropical regions, afford the advantage of not simply enriching 

 the material groundwork of landscape-painting, but also of in- 

 ducing more vivid impressions in the minds of less highly gifted 

 painters, and thus heightening their powers of artistic creation." 



(35) p. 230 — ''''From the thick and rough bark of the Crescen- 



tice and Gustavia." 



In Crescentia Cujete (the Tutuma tree, whose large fruit- 

 shells are so indispensable to the natives as household utensils), 

 in Cynometra, the Cacao-tree {Theobromci), and the Perigara 

 Gustavia (Linn.), the tender blossoms burst forth from the 

 half-carbonized bark. When children eat the fruit of the 

 Pirigara speciosa (the Chupo), their whole bodies become 

 tinged with yellow ; and this jaundice, after a continuance of 

 from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, disappears without the 

 use of medicine. 



An indelible impression was produced on my mind by the 

 luxuriant power of vegetation in the tropical world, when, on 

 entering a Cacao plantation (Caca hual), in the Valles de 

 Aragua, after a damp night, I saw for the first time large 

 blossoms springing from the root of a Theobroma, deeply im- 

 bedded in the black soil. This is one of the most instantan- 

 eous manifestations of the activity of the vegetative force of 

 organisation. Northern nations speak of " the awakening 

 of Nature at the first genial breath of Spring ;" — expressions 

 that strongly contrast with the imaginative complaint of the 

 Stagirite, who regarded vegetable forms as buried in a " still 

 sleep, from which there is no awakening, and free from the 

 desires that excite to spontaneous motion.''* 



(36) p. 230 — " Draw on their heads as caps." 

 These are the flowers of our Aristolochia cordata, to which 

 reference has been made in Illustration 25. The largest 

 flowers in the world, besides those belonging to the Com- 

 posita) (the Mexican Helianthus annuus), are produced by 

 Rajjicsia Arnoldi, Aristolochia, Datura, Barringtonia, Gustavia, 

 Carolinea, Lecythis, Nymphaa, Nelumbium, Victoria Pegina, 

 Magnolia, Cactus, the Orchideae, and the Liliaceous forms. 



* Aristot. DeGenerat. Animal, v. i. p. 778, and DeSomno et Vigil. 

 cap. i. p. 455, Bekker. 



