Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/217

 reproductive organs on which the groups of the natural systems of botany are founded,—is a remarkable and surprising phenomenon. We should have been inclined before-*hand to imagine that the shape of what are exclusively termed the vegetative organs (for example, the leaves) would have been less independent of the structure of the organs of reproduction; but in reality such a dependence only shows itself in a small number of families,—in Ferns, Grasses and Cyperaceæ, Palms, Coniferæ, Umbelliferæ, and Aroideæ. In Leguminosæ the agreement in physiognomic character is scarcely to be recognised until we divide them into the several groups (Papilionaceæ, Cæsalpinineæ, and Mimoseæ). I may name, of types which, when compared with each other, shew considerable accordance in physiognomy with great difference in the structure of the flowers and fruit, Palms and Cycadeæ, the latter being more nearly allied to Coniferæ; Cuscuta, one of the Convolvulacæ,and the leafless Cassytha, a parasitical Laurinea; Equisetum (belonging to the great division of Cryptogamia), and Ephedra, closely allied to Coniferæ. On the other hand, our common gooseberries and currants (Ribes) are so closely allied by their inflorescence to the Cactus, i. e. to the family of Opuntiaceæ, that it is only quite recently that they have been separated from it! One and the same family (that of Asphodeleæ) comprises the gigantic Dracæna draco, the common asparagus, and the Aletris with its coloured flowers. Not only do simple and compound leaves often belong to the same family, but they even occur in the same genus. We found in the high plains of Peru and New Granada, among twelve new species of Weinmannia, five