Capt. S. E. Cook on Piniis and Abiea. 297 



affords beautiful proofs of the order and harmony with which 

 the operations of nature are found to be conducted whenever 

 they are closely investigated. 



The Serrania de Ronda is a mountainous region rising ab- 

 ruptly from the shores of the Atlantic and Mediterranean and 

 from the newly raised plains of Western Andalusia^ which 

 bound it on three sides^ its eastern boundary being continuous 

 chains connecting it with the great mountainous system of the 

 interior of the Peninsula. It thus forms the bulwark of Spain 

 to the Atlantic^ the vapours of which are arrested by its higher 

 summits, giving the region a character of comparative humi- 

 dity, and imparting to its valleys extreme fertility. The height 

 of S. Cristobal and the Sierra de la Nieve, the most elevated 

 summits, may be taken at six to seven thousand feet, and high 

 upon their flanks is placed the Pinsapo, where it forms a zone 

 above the P. Pinaster, which was stated in the last paper to 

 occupy the lower valleys of the same district. 



The resemblance of this Hesperian region to the Pelopon- 

 nesus, with which it very nearly corresponds in latitude, alti- 

 tude, and relative situation, both to the adjacent continent and 

 the adjoining sea, is too striking not to require notice ; and as 

 we have seen in a preceding paper the flanks of Mount Taygetus 

 are covered with a silver fir, we have the new and curious in- 

 formation that this genus forms three grand divisions, extend- 

 ing from the Altaian Chain through central Europe, and end- 

 ing at a moderately high elevation at its southern extremities 

 of Greece and Western Spain. 



The next point to determine is the connexion of these lo- 

 calities with the central zone, and the demarcation or limits 

 of the extension. There is little doubt that that of the Grecian 

 division must be sought for in the Apennines, and if, as I 

 believe, the genus is found to be indigenous at Camaldoli in 

 Tuscany, it requires examination, and the attention of those 

 who reside in or may visit the district is earnestly called to 

 the subject. If not found there it must be sought for in the 

 Southern Alps, and especially where a zone of beech, which is 

 met with in the Abruzzi, points out in that latitude the silver 

 fir as the next superior member of the forest. 



In Spain we pass at once from the extreme south to the 



