OF PLANTS. 245 



make, in the manufacture of their shoes from its bass. 

 In the Hop, the Ivy and the Clematis, we find here the 

 first representatives of the tropical climbers. The smiling 

 green of the meadows alternates with the gloomy shadows 

 of the forests ; and Man has taken possession of the earth, 

 restraining the wild vegetation to that absolutely needful 

 for wood and hay, and rich crops reward his industry. We 

 leave this zone of the Deciduous Woods to scale the rocky 

 barrier of the Alps, with which a wise Providence has con- 

 fined the German on the south, which he too inquisitively 

 scaled to fetch from the sensual and corrupted South infinite 

 misery, and a chronic sickness wasting his people for 

 centuries. Here suddenly appear quite different plants; 

 with the great woods of trees, the coriaceous shining 

 leaves of which last through the mild winter, and round 

 the mighty stems of which climb the Vine and flame- 

 coloured Bignonias, unite the similar bushes of Myrtle, 

 Tinus, Arbutus and Pistachio. Here and there the dwarf 

 Palm is met with; Labiate plants and Crucifers, and 

 fair-flowered Rock-roses replace in summer the spring 

 Flora of scented Hyacinth and Narcissus ; but rarely, even 

 in the most favoured spots, is the eye, dazzled by the bril- 

 liancy of ever-green leaves, or the glaring play of colour of 

 the naked, jagged mountain chains, gladdened by the mild 

 radiance of verdant meadows. In recompense, mankind 

 has, in this zone of Evergreen Woods, seized upon the fruit 

 of the Hesperides. It is 



" the land where the Citrons blow, 

 Through the dark-green leaves the gold Oranges glow." 



But onward, ever onward strives the insatiable son of 

 lapetus ; no legend of African deserts, no death-news of 



