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Show 370 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. clined beforehand 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 Cyperacere, Palms, Coniferre, Umbelliferre, and Aroidere. In Leguminosre, the agreement in physiognomic character is scarcely to be recognised until we divide them into the several groups (Papilionacere, Cresalpinere, and Mimosere). I may name, of types which, when compared with each other, show considerable accordance in physiognomy with great difference in the structure of the flowers and fruit, Palms and Cycadere, the latter being more nearly allied to Coniferre; Cuscuta, one of the Convolvulacre, and the leafless Cassytha, a parasitical Laurinea; Equisetum (belonging to the great division of Cryptogamia) and Ephedra, closely allied to Coniferre. 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 Opuntiacere, that it is only quite recently that they have been separated from it! One and the same family (that of Asphodelere) comprises the gigantic Dracrena draco, the common asparagus, and the Aletris with its colored flowers. Not only do simple and compound leaves often belong to the same family, but they even occur in the Sll.me genus. We found in the high plains of Peru and New Granada, among twelve new species of W einmannia, five with "foliis simplicibus," and the rest with pinnate leaves. The genus Aralia shows still greater independence in the form of the leaves : "folia simplicia, integra, vellobata, digitata et pinnata." (Compare Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum quasi n itinere collegerunt, AI. de Humboldt et Am. Bonpland, t. iii. pp. 87 and 360.) Pinnated leaves appear to me to belong chiefly to families which are in the highest grade of organic development, namely, the Polypetalre; and among these, in the Perigynic class, to the Leguminosre, Rosacere, Terebinthacere, and Juglandere; and in the Hypogynic, to the Aurantiacere, Cedrelacere, and Sapindacere. The beautiful, doubly-pinnated leaves which form one of the principal ornaments of the torrid zone, are most frequent among the Leguminosre, in Mimosere, also in some Cresalpinere, Coulterias, and Gleditschias |