ILLUSTRATIONS (37). GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 351 



our great poet Goethe, the morphological basis of all syste- 

 matic botany. 



This science and that also of vegetable physiognomy proceed, 

 I would here again observe, from two different points of view ; 

 the former depending upon an accordance in the inflorescence 

 and in the reproduction of the delicate sexual organs ; the 

 latter on the conformation of the parts constituting the axes 

 (the stem and branches) and on the outline of the leaves, 

 which are mainly determined by the distribution of the vas- 

 cular bundles. As, moreover, the stem and branches, to* 

 gether with their appendicular organs, predominate by mass 

 and volume, they determine and strengthen the impression we 

 receive, while they individualize the physiognomical character 

 of the vegetation, as well as that of the landscape or the zone 

 in which some distinguished types occur. The law is here 

 expressed by the accordance and affinity in the marks apper- 

 taining to the vegetative, i.e. the nutritient organs. In all 

 European colonies the inhabitants have been led by resem- 

 blances of physiognomy (habitus , fades) to apply the names of 

 European forms to certain tropical plants, which bear wholly 

 different flowers and fruits from the genera to which these 

 designations originally referred. Everywhere in both hemi- 

 spheres, the northern settler has believed he could recognise 

 Alders, Poplars, Apple and Olive trees ; being misled for the 

 most part by the form of the leaves and the direction of the 

 branches. The charm associated with the remembrance of 

 native forms has strengthened the illusion, and European 

 names of plants have thus been perpetuated from generation to 

 generation in the slave colonies, where they have been further 

 enriched by denominations borrowed from the negro languages. 



A remarkable phenomenon is presented by the contrast 

 frequently observed to arise from a striking accordance in 

 physiognomy, coupled with the greatest difference in the 

 organs of inflorescence and fructification between the external 

 form as determined by the appendicular or leaf-system, and 

 the sexual organs on which are based the various groups 

 of the natural systems of botany. One would be disposed d 

 priori to believe that the aspect of vegetative organs (leaves) 

 exclusively so called, must depend upon the structure of the 

 organs of reproduction, but this dependence has only been 

 observed in a very small number of families, as Ferns, 

 Grasses, Cyperaceae, Palms, Conifers, Umbelliferae, and 



