PHYSIOGNOMY OF NATURE 465 



The rich abundance of characteristic vegetable forms pre- 

 sented by the present age t^ scientific observation and to 

 landscape painting, must act as a powerful incentive to trace 

 the sources which have yielded us this increased knowledge 

 and enjoyment of nature. The enumeration of these sources 

 must be reserved for the history of the contemplation of nature 

 in the succeeding portion of this work. Here my object has 

 been to depict, in the reflection o the external world on the 

 mental activity and the feelings of mankind, those means 

 which, in the progress of civilisation, have exercised so 

 marked and animated an influence on the study of nature. 

 Notwithstanding a certain freedom of development of the 

 several parts, the primitive force of organisation binds all 

 animal and vegetable forms to fixed and constantly recurring; 

 types, determining, in every zone, the character that peculiarly 

 appertains to it, or the physiognomy of nature. We may, there- 

 fore, regard it as one of the most precious fruits of European 

 civilisation, that it is almost everywhere permitted to man, by 

 the cultivation and arrangement of exotic plants, by the charm 

 of landscape painting, and by the inspired power of language 

 to procure a substitute for familiar scenes during the period 

 of absence, or to receive a portion of that enjoyment from 

 nature which is yielded by actual contemplation during long 

 and not unfrequently dangerous journeys through the interior 

 of distant continents. 



chineesche Planten, 1844, p. 4. What a difference do we not find on 

 comparing the variety of vegetable forms cultivated for so many cen- 

 turies past in Eastern Asia, with those enumerated by Columella, in hia 

 meagre poem de Cultu Hortorum, (v. 95--105, 174-176, 225-271, 

 295-306,) and to which the celebrated garland-weavers of Athens were 

 confined ! It was nob until the time of the Ptolemies that, in Egypt, 

 and especially in Alexandria, the more skilful gardeners appear to have 

 devoted any great attention to variety, particularly for winter cultiva- 

 tion. (Compare A then., v. p. 126,) 



