PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 13 



sands of years may elapse ere organic life can pass from 

 the verdant shores to the interior of the sandy sea, and 

 repossess itself of the domain from which it had been 

 banished. 



Those, therefore, who can view nature with a comprehen- 

 sive glance and apart from local phenomena, may see from 

 the poles to the equator organic life and vigour gradually 

 augment with the augmentation of vivifying heat, But, in 

 the course of this progressive increase there are reserved to 

 each zone its own peculiar beauties; to the tropics, variety 

 and grandeur of vegetable forms ; to the north, the aspect 

 of its meadows and green pastures, and the periodic re- 

 awakening of nature at the first breath of the mild air of 

 spring. Each zone, besides its- own peculiar advantages, 

 has its own distinctive character. Primeval laws of organi- 

 sation, notwithstanding a certain degree of freedom in the 

 abnormal development of single parts, bind all animal and 

 vegetable forms to fixed ever-recurring types. As we re- 

 cognise in distinct organic beings a determinate phy- 

 siognomy, and as descriptive botany and zoology, in the 

 restricted sense of the terms, consist in a detailed analysis 

 of animal and vegetable forms, so each region of the earth 

 has a natural physiognomy peculiar to itself. The idea 

 indicated by the painter by expressions such as "Swiss 

 nature/' "Italian sky," &c., rests on a partial per- 

 ception of this local character in the aspect of nature. The 

 azure of the sky, the lights and shadows, the haze resting 

 on the distance, the forms of animals, the succulency of the 

 plants and herbage, the brightness of the foliage, the outline 



