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tances, are found, on a near approach, to be strangers, 

 speaking a different language from what he has been used 

 to, and not to be trusted without a minute inquiry at every 

 step. 



The botany of the Cape of Good Hope, so well illus- 

 trated byThunberg, and with whose treasures he scattered, 

 a charm around the couch of the dying Linnaeus, most 

 resembles that of New Holland. At least these countries 

 agree in the hard, rigid, dwarfish character of their plants. 

 But the Cape has the advantage in general beauty of 

 flowers, as well as in a transition of seasons. After the 

 dry time of the year, when every thing but the Aloe and 

 Mesembryanthemum tribes is burnt up, and during which 

 innumerable bulbs are scattered by the winds and driving 

 sands over the face of the country, the succeeding showers 

 raise up a new and most beautiful progeny from those 

 bulbs. The families of Ii ia, Gladiolus, his, Aittholyza, 

 Oxalis, and many others, then appear in all their splen- 

 dour. Some of them, the least gaudy, scent the evening 

 air with an unrivalled perfume, whilst others dazzle the 

 beholder with the most vivid scarlet or crimson hues, as 

 they welcome the morning sun. 



The lovely Floras of the Alps and the Tropics contend, 

 perhaps most powerfully, for the admiration of a botanist 

 of taste, who is a genuine lover of nature, without which 

 feeling, in some degree of perfection, even botany can 

 but feebly charm. Of one of these the writer can speak 

 from experience ; of the other only by report ; but he 

 has had frequent opportunities of remarking, that the 

 greatest enthusiasts in the science have been Alpine bo- 

 tanists. The expressions of Haller and Scopoli on this 

 subject go to the heart. The air, the climate, the charms 

 of animal existence in its highest perfection, are associ- 

 ated with our delight in the beauty and profusion of na- 

 ture. In hot climates, the insupportable languor, the 

 difficulty of bodily exertion, the usual ill health, and the 

 effects of unwholesome instead of salutary fatigue, are 



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