Any discussion of the question whether every work should have a preface, however exhaustive in itself, would 
be out of place here, as it is very seldoxn that any body ever thinks of reading a preface at all. But the author, 
who is my intimate friend, has just undertaken a tour of art to the Greek Islands at the command of His 
Majesty, and is thus prevented from writing the preface himself. At the risk, therefore, that no one will ever 
read the few words which I have willingly promised the author to say in his behalf, I shall state shortly, by way 
of general explanation, such points as may appear to me sufficiently important to deserve mention. 
The author, who is an extremely talented young man of about eight and twenty years of age, has 
distinguished himself by the great variety of his learning and accomplishments, and notwithstanding the delicacy 
of his constitution, possesses energy, industry and perseverance in a degree in which such qualities are seldom 
found united. After he had commenced the study of the law, for which profession he was originally intended, 
the strong bent of his mind towards art manifested itself so decidedly, that it was impossible to mistake any 
longer his true calling, and the specimens of his talent which authorized great expectations, justified the 
determination which he formed with the approbation of judges of such subjects, to exchange the study of 
law for that of art. From this time he lived entirely for art, and with the assistance of celebrated masters soon 
succeeded in acquiring the mechanical advantages of a rational school, without however his own genius being 
thereby prevented from making itself felt. 
His study of nature commenced with a residence of some years in Switzerland, which was immediately 
succeeded by a tour in Italy. He had already enjoyed the favour of H. R. H. the Grand Duke of Mecklenbourg- 
Schwerin, who fully appreciated his talents, and whose invitation to accompany him on his travels he now joyfully 
accepted. He accompanied the Grand Duke to Sicily and Turkey, remained some time in Constantinople, 
and made a little excursion to the Troad. Having returned to Germany in 1848, he commenced the necessary 
preparations for a voyage to New Granada, part of the results of which are to be found in the present work. 
His ardour for this enterprise had already been inflamed by the incomparable descriptions of Alexander de 
Humboldt, the pride of our millenium. 
Having arrived in New Granada in the beginning of October, Mr. Berg had the opportunity of studying 
the hot district of the Magdalen River in the rainy season, and the mountains of the Quindiù during the dry 
season. 
Though it is far from my intention to pass any critical judgment on the artistic merits of the following 
plates (which the author has himself lithographed from his own designs), I may be allowed to observe, that they 
give evidence of a power of grasping the characteristic features of a landscape, with extraordinary life and spirit, 
as also of very masterly handling. I can further assert that the manner in which the habitual peculiarities of 
the individuals have been both conceived and executed, is so successful, that it may be recommended to the 
professional botanist as a pattern of excellence. But these plates possess great interest not only for systematic 
Botany, but in a still higher degree for geograjffiical Botany, — a branch of learning, which has been raised by 
our illustrious countryman Baron Humboldt to the rank of a very important science. They are also of great 
value for the study of Æsthetics in general, but more especially for that of the landscape-gardening, — which 
if it has recourse to such sources as the plates before us, by the substitution of representatives offering similar 
changes of form, promises great and hitherto unanticipated results. 
Those virgin forests, the originals of the present system of creation, are indeed also exposed to the 
influences of the seasons, in the same manner as we are accustomed to perceive them in the temperate and 
colder regions of our globe, but not in the same degree. Those plants for instance, which lose their leaves 
during the dry season, or the period of whose growth is limited to a definite time, are to be met with far more 
rarely there, than with us. The effort occasioned by the metamorphoses of the leaves, or by the transformation 
of the leaves into more highly developed organs, requires rest more rarely there, than is the case with our 
leaved wood and shrubs. The distinction which is there determined by the wet and dry seasons, corresponding 
to our Winter and Summer, is only very slightly marked in the development of the vegetable world. A so-called 
winter-sleep, the reasons of which are never to be sought in any fall of temperature, but entirely in the specific 
peculiarities of the plants, is almost exclusively confined in those forest regions, to the representatives of the 
Bignonias, Bombacineas, Marcgravias, Aroideas, Cyclantheas, and the Leguminosæ; and changes in the 
physiognomy of the vegetable world, when they do occur, are solely dependent upon such events as Nature 
herself may present. 
