102 Col. R, Wright's Meteorological Observations made 



Pacific, entirely to the level of the sea *. At the back of 

 Pichincha they first appear about 8500 feet. The Alstrce- 

 merias and Calceolarias, peculiar to the New World, belong 

 to this zone, though the former ascend to 11,000 feet and the 

 latter to 15,000. 



The Cercalia, with almost all the varieties of European ve- 

 getables, belong to this region. Humboldt observes a pecu- 

 liarity that wheat is grown near Vittoria at the elevation of 

 1700 feet, and in Cuba near the level of the sea; [Geo. PI. 

 p. 161) but it is probable that the reason why the cerealia 

 are cultivated only at elevations where the Mtisce disappear, 

 mav be the natural inclination of the inhabitants of the warm 

 country to prefer the cultivation of a plant which yields an 

 equal abundance of food with infinitely less labour, not only 

 in the mere cultivation, but in the subsequent preparation. 

 The three great wheat districts in Colombia are the mountain 

 chain of Merida, the elevation of which rarely reaches 5000 

 feet, with a general temperature of 72° ; the plain of Pam- 

 plona, Tunja, and Bogota, elevation 8000 to 10,000 feet; 

 temperature 58° ; and the Quitenian Andes of the same height 

 and temperature. Humboldt has accurately observed, {Geo. 

 PL, p. 152) that a comparison betwixt annual mean tem- 

 peratures of Europe and the elevated tropical regions would 

 by no means give a correct state of the climate. Thus, 

 though the mean temperature of the South of France and of 

 Quito be the same (about 59°), such fruits as peaches, apricots, 

 pears, figs, and grapes, which ripen in perfection in the former, 

 although abundantly produced in the latter, never attain 

 their proper size or flavour. The reason is that the tempera- 

 ture is equal throughout the year. There is consequently 

 no period, as in Europe, of summer heat sufficient to ripen 

 fruit requiring at this season a mean temperature of 65° or 

 70°. As far, however, as the height of 7000 feet all kinds of 

 fruit are cultivated with success; and the markets of the 

 colder country are thus constantly supplied from the neigh- 

 bouring valleys or " calientes." Humboldt is mistaken in 

 supposing the olive always barren [semper sterilis maiiet, 

 p. 154.). On the Quitenian Andes near Hambato it produces 

 abundantly, though little attention is paid to its cultivation. 



When we ascend above the extreme limit of cultivation, 

 which may be placed at 11,500 feet, and pass the region of 

 the Bariiadesia, Hyperica, Thibaudice, GauUherice, Bud- 

 dleicc, and other coriaceous leaved shrubs which, at this ele- 

 vation, form thickets of perpetual bloom and verdure, we 



* Humboldt, who had not visited these forests, confines them to betwixt 

 800 and 260 hexap. De Geo. PL, p. 185. 



