194 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



(montana), and for selva. In a work on the true breadth 

 and the greatest extension of the chain of the Andes towards 

 the east, I have shown how this two-fold signification of the 

 word monte has led to the error, in a fine and extensively 

 circulated English map of South America, of marking ranges 

 of high mountains in districts occupied only by plains. 

 Where the Spanish map of La Cruz Olmedilla, which formed 

 the basis of so many others, indicated Cacao Woods, Moiv?s 

 de Cacao (3), Cordilleras were supposed to exist, although 

 the Cacao-tree affects only the hottest of the low lands. 



If we comprehend, in one general view, the woody region 

 which embraces the whole of South America, between the 

 grassy plains of Venezuela (Jos Llanos de Caracas') and the 

 Pampas of Buenos Ayres, lying between 8° north and 19° 

 south latitude, we perceive that this connected Hyl&a of the 

 tropical zone is unequalled in extent by any other on the 

 surface of the earth. Its area is about twelve times that of 

 Germany. Traversed in all directions by rivers, some of 

 whose direct and indirect tributary streams (as well those of 

 the second as of the first order) surpass the Danube and 

 Rhine in the abundance of their waters, it owes the won- 

 derful luxuriance of its vegetation to the two-fold influence 

 of great humidity and high temperature. In the temperate 

 zone, particularly in Europe and Northern Asia, forests may 

 be named from particular genera of trees which grow toge- 

 ther as social plants (pkmtce sociales), and form separate 

 woods. In the Oak, Pine, and Birch forests of the northern 

 regions, and in the Linden or Lime Woods of the east- 

 ern, there usually predominates only one species of Amen- 

 tacese, Coniferoe or Tiliaceoe; while sometimes a single 

 sjjecies of Piniferce is intermixed with trees of deciduous 

 foliage. Such uniformity of association is unknown in tro- 

 pical forests. The excessive variety of their rich sylvan 

 flora renders it vain to ask, of what do the primeval forests 

 consist. Numberless families of plants are here crowded 



