10 



or India had the greatest number of plants. 

 " India, I believe," said she; "its inhabitants 

 have been so long in some degree civilized that,, 

 in addition to its native vegetation, many plants 

 must have been naturalized, and many varieties 

 produced by culture ; and India exclusively 

 boasts of the perfume of the most precious 

 spices. 



" But there is 'another part of the world which 

 we must not forget," continued Miss Perceval, 

 '* where nature seems to delight in multiplying 

 the species belonging to each genus. I allude 

 to the Cape of Good Hope, where the silvery 

 lustre of the innumerable families of the protea- 

 cece gives to the woods an appearance quite un- 

 like those of either Europe or America. The 

 heaths are almost infinite in variety ; the gera- 

 niums are scarcely less so, and the gladiolus, the 

 ixia, and the whole order of iridea, decorate the 

 fields and thickets of the Cape, with an exuber- 

 ance unknown in any other country. 



" To form a just view of vegetable nature, we 

 must observe it in those countries where the 

 ground has not been turned by the hand of man. 

 Few such spots are now to be found in Europe, 

 except on the summits of the Alps and Pyrenees. 

 There mountains piled on mountains, rising above 

 the clouds, form so many gardens, furnished with 

 a vegetation of their own, and the character of 

 which changes with the temperature at each de- 



