THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 327 



element, such are the most characteristic features in the 

 physiognomy of these plants. The Form of the Grasses is 

 distinguished above all others particularly by their sociality ; 

 the humble stems bear flattened, narrow, pliant leaves of a 

 vivid and pleasing green, and on thin pedicles their delicate 

 panicles wave in the lightest breeze ; in these the vegetable 

 world is still bound to the soil, from which they rise but to 

 a small height, and which they clothe as a soft woolly carpet. 

 Beside these which call forth the impression of a serene 

 pleasure, the shepherd's joy, the luxuriant nourishment of 

 flocks, stands the more gloomy Form of Sedges ; from 

 black, marshy earth project dirty, grey-green, stiff and 

 rugged, roundish stems and leaves, here and there bearing 

 balls of brown or blackish blossoms, or white, woolly flocks, 

 the venerable looking hair of the fruits, streaming in the 

 autumn wind ; sighing, the husbandman names them sour 

 grasses, and the cattle reject them. On the borders of 

 running waters, and at the same time under the fertilizing 

 influence of the warm, moist tropical climate, the Grass 

 rises to a nobler height, and the broad-leaved Reed-form,* 

 in Hindostan, even overtops the trees,f and forms a 

 meadow above the forest. There, in the region of the 

 Aromatic Lilies, the stem swells with sap, the leaves expand 

 in length and breadth, but become so thin on either side 

 the mid-rib, that they are readily split by the wind ; the 

 plant is of a deep green colour, or the warmest yellowish- 

 green, shining like velvet, and in pure and intense colours 

 beam the great flower bunches ; thus originates the 

 Plantain-form. | Through the splendour of the blossoms 



* On the left side of the frontispiece a Bamboo- bush represents 

 this Form. 



t Panicum arborescens. 



I On the right side of the title the bright green leaves of the Banana. 



