450 



with more propriety hereafter. We return from the con- 

 sideration of the labours of particular botanists, to that of 

 the diversities of nature and circumstance. 



While it is remarked that in the cold regions of the 

 north, the skill of the deep and learned botanist is chiefly 

 exercised on the minute and intricate cryptogamic tribes, 

 we are not to infer that Nature is not everywhere rich in 

 beauty and variety. Mosses and Lichens afford inex- 

 haustible amusement and admiration to the curious inqui- 

 rer, nor are more gorgeous productions entirely wanting. 

 Even Lapland boasts her Pedicularis Sceptrum, never seen 

 alive out of her limits, and Siberia offers her own beauti- 

 ful crimson Cypripedium, to console for a moment the mi- 

 serable banished victims of imperial caprice. Kotzebue, 

 though ignorant of botany, did not pass this lovely plant 

 unnoticed, even in the height of his distress. The au- 

 thoress of the pleasing little novel called " Elizabeth," 

 has represented in a just light the botanic scenery of that 

 otherwise inhospitable country ; yet it must be allowed 

 that its rarities are not numerous, except perhaps in those 

 microscopic tribes already mentioned. 



Let us in imagination traverse the globe, to a country 

 where the very reverse is the case. From the represen- 

 tations, or accounts, that have been given of New Hol- 

 land, it seems no very beautiful or picturesque country, 

 such as is likely to form or to inspire a poet. Indeed the 

 dregs of the community which we have poured out upon 

 its shores, must probably subside, and purge themselves, 

 before any thing like a poet, or a disinterested lover of na- 

 ture, can arise from so foul a source. There seems how- 

 ever to be no transition of seasons, in the climate itself, to 

 excite hope, or to expand the heart and fancy; like a 

 Siberian or Alpine spring, bursting at once from the icy 

 fetters of a sublime though awful winter. Yet in New 

 Holland all is new and wonderful to the botanist. The 

 most common plants there are unlike every thingknown be- 

 fore; and those which, at first sight, look like old acquain- 



