In The Temperate Zones The Case Is Different - The
Vegetation There Is Not So Dark Or So Rich, And Hence The
Rays Of The Declining Sun, Tinged Of A Red, Purple, Or Bright
Yellow Color, Add Most To The Beauties Of Those Climes.
When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and admiring
each successive view, I wished to find language to
express my ideas.
Epithet after epithet was found too weak
to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical
regions, the sensation of delight which the mind experiences.
I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to communicate
a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The land
is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by
Nature for herself, but taken possession of by man, who has
studded it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great
would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold,
if such were possible, the scenery of another planet! yet
to every person in Europe, it may be truly said, that at
the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil, the
glories of another world are opened to him. In my last
walk I stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and
endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever, an impression which
at the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the
orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the tree-fern,
the banana, will remain clear and separate; but the
thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene
must fade away:
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