352 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Aroideae. In the Leguminosae this accordance between the 

 physiognomical character and the inflorescence can scarcely 

 be recognized, excepting where they are separated into 

 groups (as Papilionaceae, Caesalpinineae, and Mimosaceae.) The 

 types which exhibit, when compared together, a very different 

 structure of inflorescence and fructification, notwithstanding- 

 external accordance in physiognomy, are Palms and Cycadeae, 

 the latter being most nearly allied to the Coniferae ; Cucusta, 

 belonging to the Convolvulaceae, and the leafless Cassytha, a 

 parasitical Laurinea ; Eqidsetum (from the division of the 

 Cryptogamia) and Ephedra (a coniferous tree). The Gros- 

 sulareaj (Ribes) are so nearly allied by their efflorescence to 

 Cactuses, *. e. the family of the Opuntiaceae , that it is only 

 very lately that they have been separated from them ! One 

 common family (that of the Asphodelea?) comprises the 

 gigantic tree, Dracaena Draco, the Common Asparagus, and 

 the coloured flowering Aletris. Simple and compound leaves 

 frequently belong not only to the same family, but even to the 

 same genus. We found in the elevated plateaux of Peru and 

 New Granada among twelve new species of Weinmannia, five 

 with simple, and the remainder with pinnate leaves. The 

 genus Aralia exhibits yet greater independence in the leaf- 

 form, which is either simple, entire, lobed, digitate, or pinnate.* 



Pinnate leaves appear to me to belong especially to those 

 families which occupy the highest grade of organic develop- 

 ment, as for instance, the Polypetalce ; among perigynic plants, 

 the Leguminosce, Rosaceae, Terebinthaceae, and Juglandeae ; 

 among hypocjynic plants the Aurantiaceae, Cedrelaceae, and 

 Sapindaceae. The elegant form of the doubly pinnate leaf, 

 which constitutes so great an adornment of the torrid zone, is 

 most frequently met with among the Leguminosae ; among the 

 Mimosaceae, and also among some Caesalpinias, Coulterias and 

 Gleditschias ; but never, as Kunth has observed, among the 

 Papilionaceae. 



The form of pinnate, and more especially of compound 

 leaves, is unknown in Gentianeae, Rubiaceae, and Myrtaceae. 

 In the morphological development presented by the richness 

 and varied aspect of the appendicular organs of dicotyledons, 

 we are only able to recognize a very small number of general 

 laws. 



* See Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum qaas in itinere collegerunt Al. 

 de Humboldt et Am. Bonpland, t. iii. pp. 87, 360. 



