PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 31 



other zones. Elevation above the level of the sea gives 

 this cooler temperature even in the hottest parts of the 

 earth; and Cypresses, Pines, Oaks, Berberries and Alders, 

 (nearly allied to our own) cover the mountainous districts 

 and elevated plains of Southern Mexico and the chain of the 

 Andes at the Equator. Thus it is given to man in those 

 regions to behold without quitting his native land all the 

 forms of vegetation dispersed over the globe, and all the 

 shining worlds which stud the heavenly vault from pole to 

 pole. ( 3 7) 



These and many other of the enjoyments which Nature 

 affords are wanting to the nations of the North. Many 

 constellations, and many vegetable forms, and of the latter, 

 those which are most beautiful, (palms, tree ferns, plantains, 

 arborescent grasses, and the finely- divided feathery foliage 

 of the Mimosas), remain for ever unknown to them. Indi- 

 vidual plants languishing in our hot-houses can give but a 

 very faint idea of the majestic vegetation of the tropical zone. 

 But the high cultivation of our languages, the glowing fancy 

 of the poet, and the imitative art of the painter, open to us 

 sources whence flow abundant compensations, and from 

 whence our imagination can derive the living image of that 

 more vigorous nature which other climes display. In the frigid 

 North, in the midst of the barren heath, the solitary student 

 can appropriate mentally all that has been discovered in the 

 most distant regions, and can create within himself a world 

 free and imperishable as the spirit by which it is conceived. 



