BOOK IV. 



EXTREMES IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE LICHEN ROCK AND THE VIRGIN FOREST. 



THE vegetable kingdom is the emblem of diversity in 

 harmony. While its extreme limits offer the most manifest 

 contrasts, everything still is chained and bound together by 

 imperceptible links, and bears evidence of the divine wis- 

 dom which presided over its distribution. In certain fami- 

 lies force and majesty predominate ; others attract atten- 

 tion by the delicacy of their forms or the charm of their 

 beauty. On one side are seen robust forms, sculptured 

 by the hand of giants ; on the other delicate outlines traced 

 by the fingers of fairies. 



What an astonishing contrast between this palm-tree, the 

 crown of which daringly rends the clouds as it waves above 

 the tropical forest, and this gray lichen, a thin layer of col- 

 ored matter staining our statues and walls ! What infinite 

 variety, what a series of gradations, from the splendid flower 

 of the Victoria regia to the imperceptible corolla of the 

 nettle ; from those indestructible plants which grew on the 

 warm mud of our new-born globe to the ephemeral organ- 



