370 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



clined beforehand to imagine that the shape of what are exclusively 

 termed the vegetative organs (for example, the leaves) would have 

 been less independent of the structure of the organs of reproduction ; 

 but in reality such a dependence only shows itself in a small number 

 of families in Ferns, Grasses, and Cyperaceae, Palms, Coniferse, 

 Umbelliferse, and Aroidese. In Leguminosae, the agreement in 

 physiognomic character is scarcely to be recognized until we divide 

 them into the several groups (Papilionacese, Csesalpinese, and Mi- 

 mosese). I may name, of types which, when compared with each 

 other, show considerable accordance in physiognomy with great 

 difference in the structure of the flowers and fruit, Palms and Cy- 

 cadeae, the latter being more nearly allied to Coniferae; Cuscuta, 

 one of the Convolvulacae, and the leafless Cassytha, a parasitical 

 Laurinea; Equisetum (belonging to the great division of Crypto- 

 gamia) and Ephedra, closely allied to Coniferae. On the other 

 hand, our common gooseberries and currants (Ribes) are so closely 

 allied by their inflorescence to the Cactus, i. e. to the family of 

 Opuntiaceae, that it is only quite recently that they have been sepa- 

 rated from it ! One and the same family (that of Asphodeleae) 

 comprises the gigantic Dracaena draco, the common asparagus, and 

 the Aletris with its colored flowers. Not only do simple and com- 

 pound leaves often belong to the same family, but they even occur 

 in the same genus. We found in the high plains of Peru and New 

 Granada, among twelve new species of Weinmannia, five with " foliis 

 simplicibus," and the rest with pinnate leaves. The genus Aralia 

 shows still greater independence in the form of the leaves: "folia 

 simplicia, integra, vel lobata, digitata et pinnata." (Compare Kunth, 

 Synopsis Plantarum quas in itinere collegerunt, Al. de Humboldt 

 et Am. Bohpland, t. iii. pp. 87 and 360.) 



Pinnated leaves appear to me to belong chiefly to families which 

 are in the highest grade of organic development, namely, the Poly- 

 petalae; and among these, in the Perigynic class, to the Leguminosae, 

 Rosaceae, Terebinthaceae, and Juglandeae; and in the Hypogynic, 

 to the Aurantiaceae, Cedrelaceae, and Sapindaceae. The beautiful, 

 doubly-pinnated leaves which form one of the principal ornaments 

 of the torrid zone, are most frequent among the Leguminosse, in 

 Mimoseae, also in some Caesalpineae, Coulterias, and Gleditschias; 



