174 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



testify in favour of such a succession. The Dammara 

 orieritalis of Borneo and Java, often above ten feet in 

 diameter, was first called loranthifolia ; and Dammara 

 australis (Lamb.) of New Zealand, which is 140 (149 Eng- 

 lish) feet high, was first called zamsefolia. In both these 

 species of trees the leaves are not needles, but " folia alterna 

 oblongo-lanceolata, opposita, in arbor e adultiore ssepe alterna, 

 enervia, striata," The under surface of the leaves is thickly 

 set with porous openings. This passage or transition of the 

 appendicular system from the greatest contraction to a broad- 

 leaved surface, like all progression from simple to compound, 

 has at once a morphological and a physiognomic interest 

 (Link, Urwelt, Th. I. 1834, S. 201211). The short- 

 stalked, broad, cleft leaf of the Salisburia (Kampfer's 

 Gingko) has also its breathing pores only on the under side 

 of the leaf. The original native country of this tree is 

 unknown to us. By the connection and intercourse of 

 Buddhistic communities it early passed from the temple- 

 gardens of China to those of Japan. 



In travelling from a port on the Pacific to Mexico, on 

 our way to Europe, I 'witnessed the singular and painful 

 impression which the first sight of a pine forest near Chil- 

 panzingo made on one of our companions, who, born at 

 Quito under the equinoctial line, had never seen needle 

 trees, or trees with " folia acerosa," It seemed to him as 

 if the trees were leafless ; and he thought that as we were 

 travelling towards the cold North, he already recognised in 

 this extreme contraction of the vegetable organs the chilling 

 and impoverishing influence of the pole. The traveller 



