328 THE ESTHETICS OF 



of the Plantain and the Banana plants, through the 

 mode in which the leaves are borne, almost resembling 

 that of the Reeds, the Form of the Lily-plants stands, as 

 it were, between these two, the only one directly included 

 in this sketch which has found an artistic delineator, in 

 the French flower-painter, Redoute. In the third place 

 comes the form of the Aroids. Triangular or arrow-shaped, 

 green, juicy leaves on long stalks, strange and often brightly- 

 coloured spathes, which enclose the club-shaped inflores- 

 cence, form the plants which, dwelling on the mighty stems 

 of the tropical forest trees, mark the transition to the 

 Orchidacete. 



As the Leaf-formation stands out predominantly in all 

 these last-named forms, we now oppose to them some 

 which exhibit an especial development of the stem. In 

 the first place I may mention the Heath-form ; humble, 

 branching, woody shrubs, the little, dull-green or grey 

 leaves of which are so densely crowded, that they look 

 almost like a mere roughness of the branches, and even 

 the often beautiful colouring of the dry blossom does not 

 obliterate the melancholy impression, which the plants always 

 produce where they determine the character of the land- 

 scape. The CasuarincB may be defined as a subordinate 

 group here, and called the arborescent Heaths, forming the 

 gloomy, leafless and shadeless woods of Australia. Still 

 more strikingly is the formation of the stem favoured in 

 the thorny Cactuses, which consist merely of fleshy, 

 strangely-shaped stems and branches, which Cactus-form 

 recurs again in many other families, for instance in the 

 Spurges, the Stapelias, and, though certainly with more 

 important development of leaves, yet with similar physiog- 

 nomical expression, in most of the Succulent Plants, Aloes 

 and Mesembryanthemums. Not indeed in reference to their 



