334 THE AESTHETICS OF 



sometimes from the leaves and their forms. The form of 

 Trees again falls, in still greater measure than the Palms, 

 into special characteristic sub-forms. 



Three are so evident to every one, that it is scarcely 

 necessary to mention them. These are the form of 

 Deciduous or Leafy Woods, with their stems branching in 

 every direction, and their abundant short and broad foliage, 

 forming dense, compact vegetable masses ; the Willow-form 

 with loose, wand-like shoots, narrow or long-stalked, 

 fluttering leaves, the lower sides commonly clothed with 

 white hair, investing them with a peculiar silvery splendour, 

 which is represented among us by the Willow and Poplar, 

 in the south by the useful Olive; thirdly, the form of 

 Conifers or Needle-leaved Woods, distinguished by their 

 narrow leaves of dusky green colour, and branches sent off 

 in whorls or expanded like the ribs of an umbrella from 

 the reddish- brown trunk ; a dwarfish but dense Sedge- 

 vegetation dwelling on a tree. 



In opposition to these range themselves three Forms 

 from the southern or equinoctial regions, which with a 

 totally distinct nature, allow of comparison with them in 

 many respects. The mass of the Leafy Woods, especially 

 the underwood of the Bush, is peculiarly characterized in 

 the tropics by the Mallow-form,* in which the great 

 palmately-lobed and usually long-stalked leaves, in all 

 their expanse of surface giving no deep shade, on account 

 of their loose arrangement, are distributed over a stem 

 which is generally short and thick, branching into a crown 

 only at the summit, or, more rarely, sending out long, 

 crooked branches to a great distance. The giant of the 



* At the lower part of the right hand side of the Frontispiece, 

 is a Hibiscus, which exhibits the broad and yet airy foliage of these 

 plants. 



