Picture of Vegetation on the Surface of the Globe. 119 



cardium) and gigantic fig. The fresh verdure of the leaves of 

 the pothos contrasts with the flowers of the orchideae, so varied 

 in their colours ; the bauhineae, the climbing grenadillae, and 

 banisteriae, with gold yellow flowers, interlace themselves around 

 the trunks of the trees of the forests ; delicate flowers spring from 

 the roots of the theobroma, as well as from the thick and rough 

 bark of the calabash-tree (crescentia) and gustavia. Amid this 

 abundance of flowers and fruits, this richness of vegetation, and 

 this confusion of climbing plants, the naturalist is often at a loss 

 to determine to what stem the leaves and flowers belong. A 

 single tree, adorned with pauUinia, bignonioe^ and dendrobia, 

 forms a group of vegetables, which, if separated from one an- 

 other, would cover a considerable space. 



" In the torrid zone, the plants are more abundant in juices, 

 of a fresher verdure, and clothed with larger and more shining 

 leaves, than in the northern climates. The vegetables which 

 live in society, and which render the plains of Europe so mono- 

 tonous, are almost entirely wanting in the equatorial regions. 

 Trees, twice the height of our oaks, are clothed with flowers as 

 large and beautiful as our lilies. On the umbrageous banks of 

 the river of Madalena, in South America, we find a climbing 

 aristolochia (A. cordiflora, Kunth), whose flowers are four feet 

 in circumference. 



*' The prodigious height to which, under the tropics, not only 

 isolated mountains, but even entire countries rise, and the cold 

 temperature of this elevation, procure for tne inhabitants of the 

 torrid zone, an extraordinary spectacle. Besides the groups of 

 palms and bananas, they have also around them vegetable forms 

 which seem to belong only to the regions of the north. Cy- 

 presses, figs, and oaks, barberries and alders, which approach very 

 near to ours, cover the mountainous districts of the south of 

 Mexico, as well as the chain of the Andes, under the equator. 



" In these regions, nature permits man to see, without leaving 

 his native soil, all the forms of vegetables diff^used over the sur- 

 face of the earth ; and the vault of Heaven, uncurtained as it 

 were from one pole to the other, does not conceal from his view 

 a single one of those resplendent orbs with which it is studded. 

 These natural enjoyments, and a multitude of others, are denied 

 to the northern nations. Many constellations, and many forms 



