270 



BASALTIC ROCKS 



AND 



I 



CASCADE OF REGLA. 



PLATE XXII. 



In changing our latitude and climate, we see a 

 change in the aspect of organic nature, in the 

 form of animals and of plants, which impresses 

 a peculiar character on every zone. With the 

 exception of some aquatic and cryptogamous 

 vegetables, the soil in every region is covered 

 with different plants. It is not so with inanimate 

 nature, with that aggregation of earthy sub- 

 stances, which covers the surface of our planet ; 

 the same decomposed granite, on which, amid 

 the frosts of Lapland, the vacciniums, the an- 

 dromedas, and the moss that nourishes the rein- 

 deer, vegetate, is found again in those bowers 

 of fern-trees, of palms, and of heliconia, the 

 shining foliage of which unfolds itself under the 

 influence of the equatorial heats. When at the 

 end of a long voyage, after passing from one 



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