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Show ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 367 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 j their numerical proportion, i. e. their local predominance in the total number of species in phrenogamous floras j 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 impressions 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 aware, for the 1 first time, of the close and intimate connection between the subjects which have been treated of in the foregoing pages. We are here conducted into a field which has been as yet but little cultivated. I have ventured to follow the method first employed with such brilliant results in the Zoological works of Aristotle, and which is especially suited to lay the foundation of scientific confidenc~ |