260 Picture of Vegetation 



The observations made by M. Humboldt, in the equinoctial 

 regions, and upon the highest mountains of our globe, furnish 

 us with a proof of this. The same order occurs there in the 

 gradation of species, but only above the height of five hundred 

 toises. The species, to be sure, are not the same as in Europe, 

 but they have the same character of aspect, size, and consis- 

 tence. The burning zone which occupies the lower space from 

 the level of the sea to this height, enjoying a temperature un- 

 known to Europe, is inhabited by vegetables peculiar to this 

 climate ; this, as we have seen above, is the country of palms, 

 bananas, amomums, tree ferns, &c. It is only, therefore, at the 

 height of five hundred toises, that, upon the mountains of the 

 torrid zone, the climate commences which corresponds to the 

 base of the Alps, proceedhig from the level of the sea, and it can 

 only be here that the zone of plants corresponding to those of 

 Europe can commence. 



Such is the spectacle of vegetation, always varied, and inces- 

 santly renewed, that presents itself to the view of man ; a spec- 

 tacle rich in its composition, admirable in its contrasts, sublime 

 in its harmony, and which, to produce it, has only required of 

 nature to submit the forms to the influence of different tempera- 

 tures, of temperatures I repeat, and not of climates. It is a very 

 essential effect to remark, that the production of vegetable spe- 

 cies is much more dependent upon the action of heat or cold, of 

 dryness or humidity, than upon the difference of climates ; we 

 may meet, and in fact do pretty frequently meet, the same spe- 

 cies in very different latitudes, in which, however, from local cir- 

 cumstances, the same degree of temperature prevails. It is thus 

 that we find upon the high mountains of the South of Europe, 

 plants of Sweden, Norway, and even those of Lapland and Spitz- 

 bergen. Tournefort made the same observation in Asia minor, 

 upon Mount Ararat. At the foot of the mountain are found 

 the plants of Armenia ; in proportion as we rise, those of Italy 

 and the south of France, then those of Sweden, and toward the 

 summit the plants of Lapland. It is by means^ equally simple, 

 that nature has removed from the surface of the globe that mo- 

 notonous uniformity which the plants would produce, were they 

 every where the same ; but, subjected to the influence of the at- 

 mosphere, what varied forms do they present to our admiration ! 



