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brilliant sky imaginable, impart a grave and severe aspect to. the landscape. “In order to appreciate all the beauties of a tropical forest, we must plunge into retreats as old as the world. Nothing there reminds us of the fatiguing monotony of our Oak and Fir forests; each tree has a bearing peculiar to itself. Each has its own foliage, and often its own peculiar shade of verdure. Gigantic ‘Specimens of vegetation, each belonging to different, sometimes to remote families, mingle their branches and blend their foliage. Five-leaved Bignonie grow beside Cesalpinias, and the golden leaves of the Cassia spread themselves in falling upon arbo- _rescent Ferns. Myrtles, and Eugenias, with their thousand times divided branches, are finely contrasted with the elegant simplicity of the Palms, and Cecropia spreads its broad leaves and branches, which resemble immense candelabra, among the delicate folioles of the Mimosa. There are trees with perfectly smooth bark, others defended by prickly spines; and the enormous trunk of a species of Wild Fig spreads itself out like oblique blades, which seem to support it like so many arched buttresses. “The obscure flowers of our Beeches and Oaks are only per-ceptibleto naturalists; but in the forests of South America gigantic trees often display the most brilliant colours in their corolla. Long golden clusters hang from the branches of the Cassia. The Vochysias erect their thrysus of odd-shaped yellow flowers. Yellow and sometimes purple corollas, longer than those of our Digitalis, cover in profusion the tree of the Trumpet-flowered Bignonia; and the Chorisia are decked in flowers which somewhat resemble our - Lily in shape, and remind us of the Alistreemeria from the mixture of colours they present.

“Certain vegetable forms, which assume at home very humble proportions, present themselves with a floral pomp unknown in 7 temperate climates; some Borraginacese become shrubs, many Euphorbials assume the proportions of majestic trees, offering an agreeable shelter under their thick umbrageous foliage.”

But it is principally among the Grktniviees that the greatest difference is observable. Of these there are a great number which attain no larger dimensions than our Wild Oat (Bromus), formmg

| masses of grass only distinguished from European species by their

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stems being more branchy and the leaves larger. Others shoot up into lofty stipes of graceful appearance. At first they are upright as a lance, terminating in a point, with only one leaf, resembling a large scale, at each internode; when these fall, a short branchy crown springs from their axilla bearing the true leaves. The stems of the Bamboos are thus decorated with verticillate leaves, at regular intervals, which are naturally curved, and form elegant arbours between the trees. It is to the Lianes principally that tropical forests are indebted for their picturesque beauty, and these are the source of the most varied effects. The Honeysuckle and the Ivy give but a faint idea of the appearance presented by the crowd of climbing and creeping plants belonging to many different families. These are Bignoniacee, Bauhinia, Cissus, and Hippocrateas, and while.they all require a support, they each have notwithstanding a bearing peculiar to themselves. One of those climbing parasites will encircle the trunk of the largest trees to a prodigious height; the marks left by the old leaves seeming in their lozenge-shaped design to resemble the skin of a serpent. From this parasitic stem spring large leaves of a glossy green, while its lower parts give birth to slender roots, which descend again to the earth straight as a plum-line. The tree which bears the Spanish name of Cipo-Matador, the Murderous Liane, has a trunk as straight as our poplar, but so slight that it cannot support itself alone, but must find support on a neighbouring -tree more robust than itself.. It presses against its stem, aided by its aerial roots, which embrace it at intervals like so many flexible _ osiers, by which it secures itself and defies the most.terrible hurricanes. Some Lianes resemble waving ribbons, others are twisted in large spirals, or hanging in festoons, spreading between thetrees,: and darting from one to another, twining round them and forming into masses of stem, leaves; and flowers, where the observer often — finds it difficult to render to each vegetable what belongs to it.

Thousands of different species of shrubs, Melastomaces, Borra-ginaceze, Pipers, and Acanthaces, springing up round the roots: Tillandsias ~_ of large trees, fill up the intervals left between them. and Orchids, with flowers of strange and whimsical shape, make their appearance, and these often serve as supports to other parasites. Numerous brooks ly run — these ree: ie

communicating their own freshness to the forest~vegetation, presenting to the tired traveller a delicious and limpid water, while the banks of the stream are carpeted with mosses, Lycopodes, and Ferns, from the midst of which spring Begonias, with delicate and succulent stems, unequal leaves, and flesh-coloured flowers. Plate XXIII. is a reproduction of a celebrated engraving published about the year 1825. It represents the untrodden depths of a Brazilian forest, from a picture by the Count de Forbin, Director of the Royal Museum. If we glance at the vegetation of the. countries of the great American continent situated above the tropic of Capricorn, which constitute Chili, La Plata, and Patagonia, we shall find two Palms in Chili,—these are the Jubea Spectabilis, and the Ceroxylon australis, a magnificent tree; the Araucaria imbricata, which rises to the height of a hundred and fifty feet; its verticillate branches lying almost horizontally, and covered with spiny leaves. This tree here forms immense forests. A few Graminezx, Heaths, Labiate, Umbellifers, Fuchsias, Loasas, Myrtles, and Laurel-bushes, but particularly ligneous , composites, form the chief part of the vegetation. The forests of Paraguay, still little known, situated along the coast of the Atlantic, consist of ligneous Composite and Ilex Paraguensis, usually called Paraguayan Tea, of which Paraguay annually exports nearly five hundred million pounds.

In the Argentine Republic, Auguste de Saint Hilaire found about five hundred species of plants, amongst which only fifteen belonged to families which are not European. When we reach the south coast of Patagonia and the Falkland Islands; a few- brown and coriaceous Gramines and Cyperacez, such as Dactylis cespitosa, Carex trifida, Bolax glebaria, Nine-

’ leaved Oxalis, Cardamine glacialis, a Veronica, a Calceolaria, an Aster, Opuntia Darwinii, Lomaria Magellanica among the arborescent Ferns, a few Brambles, thickets of Bilberries and Arbutus, include nearly the whole of the vegetation of these desert lands, where Mosses, Hepaticas, and Lichens reign supreme. We now - reach the southern part of South America. We approach the vegetation almost entirely ceases: we consequently South Pole; characteristics of Polar find upon this frozen soil-the general In the stormy region of Terra del Fuego thick Vegetation. NN 2

_ forests cover the mountains, where they are sheltered from the wind, to the height of fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. The Beech, with Birch-like leaves, predominates there; then comes the Antarctic and Forster’s Beech, accompanied by Barberry and Currant bushes.

At the Hermit’s Isle, the most southerly point of the American continent, there is still some arborescent vegetation. Hooker there observed eighty-four flowering plants and many Cryptogams. A Mushroom found there constitutes the principal aliment of the miserable inhabitants of these glacial regions.

AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION.

The Australian Flora and Fauna are somewhat different from those of any other part of the world. From the state of our geological knowledge it does not appear possible that this part of the world can be considered contemporary with either of the other divisions of the globe. The study of animals and plants of Oceanea eads naturalists to the conclusion that these countries belong toa later creation than the rest of the earth: that its islands emerged from the deep at a period posterior to the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; and it seems to belong to the tertiaryor secondary epochs. In fact all the Marsupial animals belong to 4 type of Mammifers inferior to those found in the fossil state in Jurassic rocks, and its vegetation presents such anomalies as might be expected in the tertiary period more than in that of our days. It presents forms more ancient than any other contemporary vegetation. More than nine-tenths of the species found between 33° and 35° south latitude, in Australia, absolutely belong to these regions. They constitute several completely distinct families. Others form families which are scarcely represented in any other part of the globe. Those even which belong to groups more generally diffused, disguise their natural affinities under forms so isolated and unlike their congeners, that they have been called the masques of the vegetable world. The different species of two genera, namely, the Eucalyptus among the Myrrace#, and the Acacia among the Lecuminose®, form perhaps, from their number and dimension, one half of the vegetation which covers the country — = phyllodium. Neither (Fig. 109). Their leaves are reduced to

these phyllodes nor the limb of the real leaves are placed horizontally, like those of Europe and other parts of the world, but, as represented in the engraving, they are perpendicular to the surface of the soil, so that the light shining between these vertical blades is not arrested, as is the case with our trees and bushes. The consequence is that the leaves are placed transversely one above the other; hence they are only subjected to one series of reflections, producing results not familiar to us.

The effect produced by masses of Australian verdure is thus entirely different from that to which we are accustomed in Europe. The aspects of these forests particularly struck the first travellers who visited them, from the singular sensation communicated to the eye by this mode of distributing light and shade.

The Eucalyptus, which occupies such a large place in Australian vegetation, may be said to be the sacred tree with the natives; it shadows the Fig. 447.—Acacia Pentadenia. tombs of the savage inhabi- piles, vith ‘aot; 'B,thephyllodium, tants of these countries. Sir"ots stot Thomas Mitchell, the traveller to whom we owe the first scientific description of Australia, has given a remarkable picture of these “groves of death,” which are daily becoming more and more rare, and will disappear under the influence of European colonisation. He relates that these groves mark the centre of the patrimonial land of each great Australian tribe. Little twmudi of grass, and sandy footpaths, surround the clumps of these funereal squares, —_ phaah ‘spreads theLcgpsamded ortheseouish aa and Xanthorrea. d simple-leaved Mimosa, oO

which predominate in the forests and give quite a special character to Australian vegetation, if we name the Xanthorrea, the Casuarina, the Araucaria excelsa, a few elegant Epacride, a great number of pretty Leguminosez and Orchidacee, we shall give a general idea of the vegetable mantle which covers and decorates, in a manner so original, the whole continent, if we may so call it, of Australia. The Xanthorrea has a thick stem; long, narrow, linear leaves, curved and spreading at the summit, from the centre of which rises an elongated stipe, terminated by a spike of robust flowers, which impress their peculiar character on all places where it abounds. The Casuarina has long, pendent, and drooping boughs, most delicately articulated. Araucaria excelsa, whose column-like trunk and verticillated branches rise to the height of ninety or a hundred feet; the elegant Epacridex with flowers so varied; a vast number of pretty Leguminose, which now add to the riches of our hothouses; more than a hundred and twenty Orchidaceze—nearly all belong exclusively to the special vegetation of Australia.

The large islands of New Zealand almost correspond in latitude — to the zone which we have been examining. These islands are the nearest land (considering Van Diemen’s Land as part of Australia) and are interesting as being the direct antipodes of Western Europe, and because they repeat as it were our Mediterranean region on the other side of the globe. While resembling it in climate, however, the native vegetation has its own characteristics. It has some features in common with Australia and the tropics, as will appear from the account given of them by Messrs. Richard and Lesson, whose account we chiefly follow.

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