8 



INTRODUCTION. 



foliage thus look as if floating in the air. Everything, even to the smallest fern 

 covering the ground, shows a tendency to spread and extend, preventing the 

 different parts from resting upon each other, and forming, by lines meeting 

 at every point, open spaces which admit light and air. On a smaller scale 

 we find this character wherever plants grow, but more especially where, throughout 

 the year, a uniform degree of moisture and temperature prevails. There, more 

 than elsewhere, Nature exhibits that matchless beauty reflected in the noblest archi- 

 tectural monuments of the middle ages, in that airy treatment of gigantic masses 

 and richness of forms, — the Gothic pointed arch, — the Arabic origin of which is 

 more than probable, being formed by two perpendicular palms, and the meeting 

 of their leaves. In hotter and drier countries all this is less evident. There, trees 

 and shrubs have, almost as in the colder climates, a rather bushy growth, develop- 

 ing numerous small branches; probably owing to the regular and continuous 

 droughts, and the summer sleep of all nature connected with them, which periodi- 

 cally interrupts the activity of vegetable life, as the winter does in the higher 

 latitudes. Bat it would seem as if even in high latitudes, under circumstances 

 rendering that interruption less marked, the above-mentioned trellis-like character 

 reappears to a certain extent. Thus on the west coast of America, latitude 48° 

 north, where there is a moist climate little subject to variations of temperature, 

 the pine forests strictly differ from the European by a development of the 

 branches, and a general luxuriance often recalling to mind the growth in the 

 tropics. Perhaps the same may apply to the forests of the more southern por- 

 tions of America and to New Zealand. 



What has been stated will render it evident how little hope there would have 

 been to see in the following illustrations the peculiarities of such various climates 

 preserved, if they had fallen into the hands of artists ignorant of the points on which 

 particular stress is laid. Although far from believing that I always succeeded in 

 conveying the right expression, I am confident that I could not have missed it so 

 far as those would have done inevitably ; and as so much depends upon the 

 character of Nature being correctly given, we can well afford to sacrifice to a 

 certain extent the artistic treatment. Another fault which, with some justice, 

 may be found with these illustrations is, that they represent objects too simple. 

 The characteristic grouping might have been essentially the same, and would 

 have gained as a typical picture, if more pictorial details had been introduced. To 

 this I must reply, that this poverty has been felt acutely by myself, and that 

 only want of time can be pleaded as an excuse, drawing not being my primary 

 occupation during the voyage. I will not fail to direct attention to figures 



