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 POSTSCRIPT ON THE PHYSIOGNOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.

In the preceding sketch of a "Physiognomy of Plants," I have had principally in view three nearly allied subjects:—the absolute diversity of forms; their numerical proportion, i. e. their local predominance in the total number of species in phænogamous floras; and their geographic and climatic distribution. If we desire to rise to general views respecting organic forms, the physiognomy of plants, the study of their numerical proportions (or the arithmetic of botany),—and their geography (or the study of their zones of distribution),—cannot, as it appears to me, be separated from each other. In the study of the physiognomy of plants, we ought not to dwell exclusively on the striking contrasts presented by the larger organic forms separately considered, but we should also seek to discern the laws which determine the physiognomy of Nature generally, or the picturesque character of vegetation over the entire surface of the globe, and the impression produced on the mind of the beholder by the grouping of contrasted forms in different zones of latitude and of elevation. It is from this point of view, and with this concentration or combination of objects, that we become