H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 361 



races, no single species of the land birds found being pre- 

 cisely identical with one of any other part of the continent. 

 It should be remarked that the island is about 100 miles from 

 the coast of Lower California, and 230 miles west of south 

 from the town of San Diego. It is twenty-six miles long and 

 about ten miles in wddth, and has a mountain ridge with one 

 elevation of 3900 feet above the level of the sea. 



VARIATIONS IN PLANTS WITH THE ALTITUDE AT WHICH 



THEY GROW. 



According to Ebermeyer, the size of leaves of a given spe- 

 cies of tree is considerably affected by its height above the sea- 

 level ; with equal strength of soil the leaves decreasing with 

 the height. In the case of the red beech of Germany, the sur- 

 face of the leaves on low lands is three to four times greater 

 than on the mountains. As a general rule the quantity of 

 humus in mountain forests is greater than in those lower 

 down, owing to the slower decay of the leaves consequent 

 upon a lower temperature. It is given as a remarkable fact 

 by Ebermeyer that the entire amount of ashes of the strewn 

 materials decreases with the height, and that the proportion 

 of phosphoric acid, especially in the ashes, is much less in 

 high positions than on lower ground. Hence it follows that 

 the value of the dead leaves as manure decreases in 2:en- 

 eral with the height, and that, consequently, the carrying 

 away of material from the low lands for other purposes is 

 much more disadvantageous than from the mountains as far 

 as plant nutrition is concerned. 18 A^ ^ebncari/ 26,1815, 

 601. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE PALM-TREE, SCHEELIA REGIA. 



Bruchmiiller narrates that in his passage up the Magda- 

 lena River, New Granada, he noticed a tall palm Scheelia 

 regia so entirely surrounded by a growth of a species of 

 fig-tree Ficus dendroiclea that the top only was visible. 

 This species of palm, under the names of Palma roal and Pal- 

 ma de vino, occurs frequently lower down the river, and the 

 natives obtain from it a covering for their huts, and prepare a 

 kind of wine similar to champagne from the sap and a most 

 excellent salad from the heart, while other portions aff'ord 

 strong fibres. 1 C, II., 18V5, 14. 



Q 



