1120. The native countries of plants may often be discovered by their features, in the same manner as the national distinctions which are observable in the looks and colour of mankind, and which are effected chiefly by climate. Asiatic plants are remarkable for their superior beauty; African plants for their thick and succulent leaves, as in the case of the Cacti; and American plants for the length and smoothness of their leaves, and for a sort of singularity in the shape of the flower and fruit. The flowers of European plants are but rarely beautiful, a great proportion of them being; amentaceous. Plants indigenous to polar and mountainous regions are generally low, with small compressed leaves, but with flowers large in proportion. Plants indigenous to New Holland are distinguishable for small and dry leaves, that have often a shrivelled appearance. In Arabia they are low and dwarfish; in the Archipelago they are generally shrubby, and furnished with prickles; while in the Canary Islands, many plants, which in other countries are merely herbs, assume the look of shrubs and trees. The shrubby plants of the Cape of Good Hope and New Holland exhibit a striking similarity as also the shrubs and trees of the northern parts of Asia and America, which may be exemplified in the Platanus orientalis of the former, and in the Platanus occidentalis of the latter, as well as in Fagus sylvatica and Fagus ferruginea, or A'cer cappadocium and A'cer saccharinum; and yet the herbs and under shrubs of the two countries do not in the least correspond. 'A tissue of fibres,' Humboldt observes, 'more or less loose - vegetable colours more or less vivid, according to the chemical mixture of their elements, and the force of the solar rays-are some of the causes which impress on the vegetables of each zone their characteristic features.'
