298 THE AR U ISLANDS. [chap, xxxiii. 



general estimation, and a vague idea is formed that 

 whatever is pre-eminently beautiful must come from the 

 hottest parts of the earth. But the fact is quite the 

 contrary. Ehododendrons and azaleas are plants of tem- 

 perate regions, the grandest lUies are from temperate 

 Japan, and a large proportion of our most showy flower- 

 ing plants are natives of the Himalayas, of the Cape, of 

 the United States, of Chili, or of China and Japan, all 

 temperate regions. True, there are a great number of 

 grand and gorgeous flowers in the tropics, but the pro- 

 portion they bear to the mass of the vegetation is ex- 

 ceedingly small ; so that what appears an anomaly is 

 nevertheless a fact, and the effect of flowers on the 

 general aspect of nature is far less in the equatorial 

 than in the temperate regions of the earth. 



