52 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



that of the western coast, just as Kamtschatka, on the east- 

 ern coast of the Old Continent, shows an inferior vegeta- 

 tion to that of the western coasts in the very same latitude. 

 We must now sail on to more familiar scenes. We will not 

 land in England; for every Englishman knows what the 

 broad but varied features of vegetation are, which chiefly 

 characterize the face of his own country : the undulating 

 hills, some richly wooded with Beeches and Oaks, and 

 others clothed with Heath and Gorse ; the bare but beau- 

 tiful sea-side downs too, covered, and but just covered, with 

 short grass, with no other feature to distract the eye as it 

 watches the shadows of the passing clouds gliding over their 

 quiet faces ; the bleak, level heaths of some parts, contrast 

 with the broad rich pastures of others, which are often re- 

 lieved by clumps of the Elm-tree that most perfectly 

 pleasing of all forms and girdled round by Whitethorn 

 hedges. The large proportion of cornfields, and the large 

 tracts of exceedingly useful, but exceedingly ugly, flat 

 turnip-fields; the Fir plantations, and the last remains of 

 the old forests, to be found still in some parts; these 

 sights are too well known to every one for it to be necessary 

 to spend the time in England ; we will therefore " sail by 

 the white cliffs of Britain" and land in Germany, taking 



