POPULAR BOTANY. 463 
Nearly all that has been said about odour, is also, in most cases 
applicable to the taste. 
It has often been stated that it is the destination of the vegetable 
kingdom to spread over the surface of the earth. As, however, our globe 
is of very different construction, and particularly in the different zones, 
the plants, as a matter of course, must be organized in such a manner, as 
to answer all requirements in this respect. 
In hot climates we find, therefore, most of the plants covered with 
very large leaves, as, for instance, the palm trees, bananas, caladiurr, 
and others, whose office it is to catch the hot sun-beams, and prevent 
the exsiccation of the ground. 
In the cold climates the Coniferse (pine tribe) are predominant, whose 
sap, as is well known, is of a resinous nature, and does not freeze, even 
in the coldest winters. 
In the temperate zones the prevailing character of the plants is less 
distinct or observable, as they form, likewise, the transition from one 
climate to another. The general impression, produced by the pre- 
dominance of one or another family of plants, is called the physiognomy 
of plants. 
With regard to the facts just mentioned, the high mountains of the 
tropics offer a particularly interesting picture. From the base upward, 
to a certain height, the physiognomy is tropical ; from thence farther up 
to about midway it is temperate, and the top is entirely that of a cold 
climate. 
A great number of plants show a strong dependency on the geogra- 
phical influence of our globe, while they grow only between certain 
degrees of latitude, over which they never extend without human aid. 
In this respect tne conduct of different mountain plants deserves to be 
mentioned. These grow exclusively in certain regions, as, for instance, 
of the Alps, they do not cross their line, and disappear gradually towards 
the top and the foot, and are entirely lost at the lower flat ground. But, 
without meeting them somewhere else in any direction whatever, we 
find them at last back again on other mountains of the same character 
and the same region, often a hundred miles distant from the Alps, and 
separated from them by rivers and even by the sea. 
That branch of botany which treats of the investigation of their 
natural boundary is called the geography of plants. 
With regard to my former statements the most striking of the 
different phenomena connected with vegetable life can be attributed to 
their growth, the great diversity of their forms, and their colours, their 
odours, and their flavour. 
The tiny grain of seed is developed into a stately tree, which latter, 
"by the periodical course of events, undergoes the same process, and 
assumes eventually the same shape. Beneath the mighty oak we find 
the pigmy moss ; by the side of the majestic Victoria Regia grows the 
