INTRODUCTION. 
5 
Portugal laurel; had the rose and the laurel 
been unknown, nothing short of a drawing 
could have described this beautiful plant. 
In all works of natural history drawings are 
essential to convey an adequate opinion of 
the thing wished to be described. And vo¬ 
lumes cannot convey to our mind so just an 
idea of a country, a city, or a single building, 
as is learnt by one glance of a pictorial re¬ 
presentation. To impress a just conception 
of the persons, habits, and manners, of a 
strange country without the aid of picture, 
we might as well try to give the true relish 
and taste of the pine-apple by words. 
To shew how appropriately the ancients 
chose their emblems, we have only to men¬ 
tion that rotundity was the figure by which 
they expressed eternity, because it has nei¬ 
ther beginning nor end. And this symbol was 
frequently represented by a serpent bent into 
the form of a circle, with its tail placed in its 
mouth. The cock was the emblem of vigi- 
S lance, the lion of strength, the horse of liberty, 
