SUBJECT CONTINUED. 61 



graceful appearance to its compound leaves with 

 their long and oval leaflets ; the Horse-Chestnut, its 

 dignified and pyramidical character to the arrange- 

 ment of the boughs, which group around the parent 

 stem, hroad and spreading at the hase, and gradually 

 diminishing till they reach the top ; the Beech, its 

 noble bearing among forest trees to the smooth and 

 beautiful trunk which throws out in all directions 

 those massive and yet waving branches, which gently 

 droop towards the earth, mantled in spring with 

 leaves of the lightest green, and during autumn ex- 

 hibiting the varied tints of yellow, brown and orpi- 

 ment. In each of these an individuality of character 

 exists ; but such is not the case with the palm tribe. 

 In the Piritu, the stem is slender, like a reed ; in the 

 Palma de Coveja, it is scaly : in one species prickly, 

 in another irregularly thick. In the Palma Eeal, of 

 Cuba, it is formed like a spindle, small at the base 

 and top and swelling in the middle, and often rising 

 to the height of 180 feet, crowned either with 

 widely-spreading and feathery, or fan-shaped leaves. 

 And as the leaves of European plants present dif- 

 ferent kinds of green, and each peculiar to separate 

 species, so in this respect also a remarkable dissimi- 

 larity subsists. Palms are not more unlike in 

 their appearance than in the colour of their leaves ; 

 some are white on the under surface, like those of 

 the white-beam hawthorn, which often present a 

 pleasing contrast to the deep foliage of our forest 

 trees ; others are dark green, and shining like those 

 of the favourite holly, of our lanes and commons 



With polished leaves, and berries red. 

 Others, again, are fan-shaped, and adorned with 



