XII. CORA AND KRONOS. 215 



ily of the Alpine rhododendrons, the thibaudias, the 

 andromedas, the vacciniums, and those bef arias'* . with 

 resinous leaves, which we have several times compared 

 to the rhododendron of our European Alps. 



" Even when nature does not produce the same species 

 in analogous climates, either in the plains of isothermal 

 parallels, or on table-lands the temperature of which re- 

 sembles that of places nearer the poles, we still remark a 

 striking resemblance of appearance and physiognomy in 

 the vegetation of the most distant countries. This phe- 

 nomenon is one of the most curious in the history of 

 organic forms. I say the history ; for in vain would 

 reason forbid man to form hypotheses on the origin of 

 things : he is not the less tormented with these insoluble 

 problems of the distribution of beings." 



15. Insoluble yes, assuredly, poor little beaten phan- 

 tasms of palpitating clay that we are and who asked us 

 to solve it ? Even this Ilumboldt, quiet-hearted and 

 modest watcher of the ways of Heaven, in the real make 

 of him, came at last to be so far puffed up by his vain 

 science in declining years that he must needs write a 

 Kosmos of things in the Universe, forsooth, as if he 

 knew all about them ! when he was not able meanwhile, 

 (and does not seem even to have desired the ability,) to 

 put the slightest Kosmos into his own ' Personal Narra- 

 tive ' ; but leaves one to gather what one wants out of 



* " The Alpine rose of equinoctial America," p. 453. 



