472 MM. P. Barker Webb et Sabin Berthelot, 



travellers are following the hints which were given by Martius in 

 his " Palms," and in his interesting plate of the " interior of a Bra- 

 zilian forest." D'Orbigny has commenced this plan in his great work 

 though only one plate has yet been given ; and in the publication 

 before us we have already six views of some of the most prominent 

 regional vegetations. There is something peculiar in the vegetation 

 of every clime and country which stamps the landscape for its own, 

 The deep and sombre gloom of the European pine forests, or the 

 grander character of those of the new world. The " gray old trunks 

 that high in heaven mingle their mossy boughs," the peculiarity of 

 the carpet underneath, " Beauty such as blooms not in the glare of 

 the broad sun," would form pictures strong in contrast with the 

 rich and broad foliage of the tropics, their profuse blossoms and their 

 gorgeous hues ; and which would show even a wider change if com- 

 pared with the low vegetation of the far north ; clothing a view often 

 boundless in extent with a uniformity of colouring, dark green and 

 gloomy, or brown and sombre, and interrupted only by some pin- 

 nacle of cold grey rock, or the icy glance of some distant water. 

 In these landscapes, however, the general characters would be at once 

 felt and caught, and the distinction could not fail to be marked ; but 

 when the zonal plants of an island have to be characterized, the 

 short and peculiar growth of the coast contrasted with those of higher 

 regions, we find the artist at a loss and hampered, and the aid of the 

 botanist required. Hence it is, that such views as we have now be- 

 fore us, are of most difficult execution, for while the vegetation must 

 be the prominent feature in the landscape, it should not be such as 

 to affect the harmony of the whole. This it never does in nature, and 

 it is only when transferred to the canvass that the inferiority is per- 

 ceived, and the difficulty of its execution ascertained. 



In the phytostatic views already published, though a great deal 

 is sacrificed, and properly so, to the botanist, there is in some of 

 them considerable merit as pictures, and no over obtrusion of the 

 vegetation. We like No. 1 and 3 best. The first is a view of a 

 mountainous coast, the rocks tufted with Euphorbia Canariensis and 

 piscatorin, Kleinia neriifolia, whose rather stiff appearance is reliev- 

 ed by the Plocama pendula. No. 2, Vue d'un Baranca, something 

 in the same style of mountain and precipice, is curious, but not so 

 much to our taste. It is a stiff landscape. But'No. 3, " Vue de grand 

 ravin du Badajos," with a little more force, would make a grand pic- 

 ture, while the introduction of some wild animals, or the soaring of 

 an accipitrine bird, (if such in reality abide there,) would give ex- 



