While it is remarked that in the cold regions of the north, the skill of the deep and learned botanist is chiefly exercised on the minute and intricate cryp togamic tribes, we are not to infer that Nature is not every where rich in • beauty and variety. Mosses and Lichens afford inexhaustible amusement and admiration to the curious inquirer, nor are more gorgeous productions entirely wanting. Even Lap land boasts. her Pedicularis Sceptrurn never seen alive out of her limits, and Siberia offers her own beautiful crimson Cypripediurn, to console for a moment the miserable banished victims of Imperial caprice. Kotzebue, though ignorant of botany, did not pass this lovely plant unnoticed, even in the height of his distress. The authoress of the pleasing little novel called " Elizabeth," has represented in a just light the botanic scenery of that otherwise in hospitable country ; yet it must be allowed that its rarities are not numerous, except perhaps in those microscopic tribes already mentioned.
Let us in imagination traverse the globe, to a country where the very reverse is the case. Froml the representations, or accounts, that have been given of New Elolland,-it seems no very beautiful or pie turesque country, such as is likely to form or to in spire a poet. Indeed the dregs of the community which we have poured out upon its shores, must probably subside, and purge themselves, before any thing like a poet, or a disinterested lover of nature, can arise from so foul a source. There seems how ever to be no transition of seasons, in the climate it self, to excite hope, or to expand the heart and fancy ; like a Siberian or Alpine spring, bursting at once from the icy fetters of a sublime though awful winter. Yet in New Holland all is new and wonder ful to the botanist. The most common plants there are unlike every thing known before, and those which, at first sight, look like old acquaintances, are found, on a near approach, to be strangers, speaking a different language from what he has been used to, and not to be trusted without a minute in quiry at every step.
The botany of the Cape of Good Hope, so well • illustrated by Thunberg, and with whose treasures he scattered a charm around the couch of the dying Linnieus, most resembles that of New Holland. A t least these countries agree in the hard, rigid, dwarfish character of their plants. But the Cape has the advantage in general beauty of flowers, as well as in a transition of seasons. After the dry time of the year, when every thing but the Aloe and Mesembryanthemunt tribes is burnt up, and during which 'innumerable bulbs are scattered by the winds and driving sands, over the face of the country, the succeeding showers raise up a new and most beautiful progeny from those bulbs. The fa milies of Ixia, Gladiolus, Iris, Antholyza, Oxalis, and many others, then appear in all their splendour.
Some of them, the least gaudy, scent the evening air with an unrivalled perfume, whilst others dazzle the beholder with the most vivid scarlet or crimson hues, as they welcome the morning sun.
The lovely Floras of the Alps and the Tropics contend, perhaps most powerfully, for the admira tion of a botanist of taste, who is a genuine lover of nature, without which feeling, in some degree • of perfection, even botany can but feebly charm. Of ope of these the writer can speak from experience ; of the other only by report ; but he has had frequent opportunities of remarking, that the greatest enthu siasts in the science, have been alpine botanists. The expressions of Haller and Scopoli on this sub ject go to the heart. The air, the climate, the charms of animal existence in its highest perfection, are associated with our delight in the beauty and profusion of nature. In hot climates, the insupport able languor, the difficulty of bodily exertion, the usual ill heallh, and the effects of unwholesome in stead of salutary fatigue, are described as sufficient to counterbalance even the pleasure which arises from the boundless variety,' and infinite beauty, of the creation around. The flowery trees of a tropi cal forest raise themselves far above the human grasp. They must be felled before we can gather their blossoms. The insidious and mortal reptile twines among their boughs, and the venomous insect stings beneath their shade. We who enjoy the pro ductions of these climates in peace and safety in our gardens, may well acknowledge our obligations to the labour and zeal of those who, by arduous journies and painful researches, supply us with the riches of every countryin succession. We do not, indeed, enjoy them in perfection, but we can study and investi gate at leisure their various beauties and distinctions. We can compare them with.our books, and profit by the acuteness of former observers. We can perpe. tuate, by the help of the pencil or the pen, whatever is novel or curious. We can preserve the plants and flowers themselves for subsequent examination, and return to them again and again in our closet, when winter has fixed his seal on all the instruction and pleasure afforded by the vegetable creation abroad. Yet let not the sedentary botanist exult in his riches, or rejoice too heedlessly in the abundance of his resources. A plant gathered in its native soil, and ascertained by methodical examination, is more impressed on the memory, as well as more dear to theimagination, than many that are acquired with ease, and named by tradition or report. The labours of its acquisition and determination enhance its value, and the accompaniments of delightful scenery, or pleasing society, are recollected, when difficulties and toils are forgotten.