ILLUSTRATIONS (37). GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 349 



(37) p. 231 — " The luminous worlds which spangle the firma- 

 ment from pole to pole" 



The more magnificent portion of the southern sky, in which 

 shine the constellations of the Centaur, Argo, and the South- 

 ern Cross, where the Magellanic clouds shed their pale light, 

 is for ever concealed from the eyes of the inhabitants of 

 Europe. It is only under the equator that man enjoys the 

 glorious spectacle of all the stars of the southern and northern 

 heavens revealed at one glance. Some of our northern con- 

 stellations, — as, for instance, Ursus Major and Ursus Minor, 

 — owing to their low position when seen from the region of 

 the equator, appear to be of a remarkable, almost fearful mag- 

 nitude. As the inhabitant of the tropics beholds all stars, so 

 too, in regions where plains, deep valleys, and lofty mountains 

 are alternated, does Nature surround him with representatives 

 of every form of vegetation. 



In the foregoing sketch of a " Physiognomy of Plants," I 

 have endeavoured to keep in view three nearly allied subjects, 

 — the absolute diversity of forms ; their numerical relations, i.e. 

 their local preponderance in the whole number of phanerogamic 

 floras j and their geographical and climatic distribution. If 

 we would rise to a general view regarding vital forms ; — the 

 physiognomy, the study of the numerical relations (the arith- 

 metic of botany), and the geography of plants (the study of 

 the local zones of distribution), cannot, as it seems to me, be 

 separated from one another. The study of the physiognomy 

 of plants must not be exclusively directed to the consideration 

 of the striking contrasts of form which the larger organisms 

 present, when considered separately ; but it must rise to 

 the recognition of the laws which determine physiognomy of 

 nature generally, the picturesque character of vegetation over 

 the whole surface of the earth, and the vivid impression pro- 

 duced by the grouping of contrasted forms in different zones 

 of latitude and elevation. It is when concentrated into this 

 focus that we first clearly perceive the close and intimate 

 connection existing between the subjects treated of in the 

 preceding pages. We have here entered upon a field of 

 inquiry hitherto but little cultivated. I have ventured to 

 follow the method first propounded with such brilliant results 

 in Aristotle's zoological works, and which is so especially 

 adapted to establish scientific confidence, — a method in which 



