INTRODUCTION. 



scribed by pictures. Robertson relates that 

 in an interview which Cortes had with the 

 Mexican chiefs, the latter were attended by 

 painters, who employed themselves diligently 

 in delineating upon white cotton cloths, 

 figures of the ships, the horses, the artillery, 

 the soldiers, and whatever else attracted their 

 eyes, as singular, in order to convey to the 

 mind of Montezuma, their sovereign, a more 

 lively idea of the strange and wonderful ob- 

 jects now presented to their view, than any 

 words could communicate. 



Even at the present day, when written lan- 

 guage is so copious, w^e should be unable to 

 describe a rose to those who had never seen 

 such a flower, without the assistance of draw- 

 ing something similar. When the camellia 

 japonica was first brought to flower in this 

 country, we felt it impossible to give a just 

 idea of the flower without drawing a picture 

 in language, by representing it like a rose 

 formed by wax and placed on a branch of the 



