472 MM. P. Barker Webb et Sabin Berthelot, 
travellers are following the hints which were given by Martins 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 
piscatoria, 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- 
