244 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



groves of Bamboo form shaded, over-arching walks or avenues. The 

 smooth polished and often lightly-waving and bending stems of these 

 tropical grasses are taller than our alders and oaks. The form of 

 Graminese begins even in Italy, in the Arundo donax, to rise from 

 the ground, and to determine by height as well as mass the natural 

 character and aspect of the country. 



The form of Ferns, (*) as well as that of Grasses, becomes enno- 

 bled in the hotter parts of the globe. Arborescent ferns, when they 

 reach a height of above 40 feet, have something of a palm-like ap- 

 pearance ; but their stems are less slender, shorter, and more rough 

 and scaly than those of palms. Their foliage is more delicate, of a 

 thinner and more translucent texture, and the minutely indented 

 margins of the fronds are finely and sharply cut. Tree ferns belong 

 almost entirely to the tropical zone, but in that zone they seek by 

 preference the more tempered heat of a moderate elevation above 

 the level of the sea, and mountains two or three thousand feet high 

 may be regarded as their principal seat. In South America the 

 arborescent ferns are usually found associated with the tree which has 

 conferred such benefits on mankind by its fever-healing bark. Both 

 indicate by their presence the happy region where reigns a soft per- 

 petual spring. 



I will next name the form of Liliaceous plants ( 39 ) (Amaryllis, 

 Ixia, Gladiolus, Pancratium), with their flag-like leaves and superb 

 blossoms, of which Southern Africa is the principal country ; also 

 the Willow form, ( 30 ) which is indigenous in all parts of the globe, 

 and is represented in the elevated plains of Quito (not in the shape 

 of the leaves, but in that of the ramification), by Schinus Molle '> 

 Myrtacese, ( 31 ) (Metrosideros, Eucalyptus, Escallonia myrtilloides) j 

 Melastomaceae, ( 3a ) and the Laurel form. ( M ) 



It would be an enterprise worthy of a great artist to study the 

 aspect and character of all these vegetable groups, not merely in 

 hot-houses or in the descriptions of botanists, but in their native 

 grandeur in the tropical zone. How interesting and instructive to 

 the landscape painter (**) would be a work which should present to 

 the eye, first separately, and then in combination and contrast, the 

 leading forms which have been here enumerated ! How picturesque 

 is the aspect of tree-ferns spreading their delicate fronds above the 



