16 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



gives to each country its peculiar aspect. The animal 

 world is too small in number, too restless and ever- 

 changing to impress its mark on a country. Hence of 

 the three kingdoms of nature the vegetable kingdom 

 is that which has the greatest power in impressing on 

 our mind an image of a land we have seen, and of the 

 great natural divisions of the earth. For rocks and 

 mountains also preserve the same forms everywhere 

 from the equator to the poles, and their aspects could 

 not give a special physiognomy to any country. But 

 the trees and the flowers, the aspect of fields and 

 meadows, of hills and plains, the forms and the colors 

 of the leaves and the size of the plants these give a 

 character to the scene, on which we pass our lives and 

 with which we feel bound up as if it were a part of 

 our existence. And in long journeys amid the rich 

 and abundant productions of the tropics, the traveller 

 looks sadly and with regret for the trees of his native 

 land ; and his heart beats quicker as he sees at his feet 

 a plant or a flower of his father-land recalling to him 

 sweet memories of home. 



The chief cause which rules in botanical geography 

 and governs the distribution of plants throughout the 

 countries of the globe, is temperature. Thus here also, 

 as in the whole harmonious life on earth, the sun 

 reigns as a sovereign it is he who directs the or- 

 chestra, calling forth now soft and solemn cadences, 

 now light and brilliant melodies. Two hundred 

 thousand varieties of plants divide the surface of 

 the earth among themselves. One great law directs 

 the division, the law of temperature. No other force 



