305 



AMERICA, 



AMERICA. 



306 



are found ; the Vanilla, whose pods are extensively used in Spain, 

 Italy, and France, and the Jalap Convolvulus, which derives its name 

 from the city of Jalapa, near which it principally abounds. 



But in the high-lands of Mexico, all this glorious vegetation disap- 

 pears; the Eatable-rooted Nasturtium (Tropceolum esculentum) and 

 the Tuberous Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis tuberosa) supply the place of the 

 yam ; mahogany -trees give way to oaks, and to the singular Hand- Tree 

 \Cheirostcmori), the five united stamens of whose flowers are disposed 

 like the talons of a bird of prey ; while the pine tribe finds its most 

 southern limits, and the herbage is composed of genera either 

 resembling or identical with those of the more northern regions. 



In the lower parts of these high-lands the vegetation of course is 

 more nearly the same as that of the plains, but in many places it 

 exhibits a striking combination of the two ; as for example near 

 Jalapa, where the woods contain great numbers of oaks, the stems of 

 which are covered with a host of orchidese, peppers, and ferns. 



In many respects the West Indies resemble the tropical parts of 

 Mexico ; the plants are either naturally the same, or have become so 

 by importation from one shore to the other, or at least have a 

 general resemblance, the principal difference being caused by the 

 greater humidity of the atmosphere of the West India Islands in 

 consequence of their insular position. Thus in the whole flora, 

 epiphytal orchidese and ferns, especially of the arborescent kind, are 

 more abundant ; certain fruit-trees are in many cases more luxuriant, 

 and more generally cultivated, as the Avocado Pear (Lauria pertea), 

 the Mango, the Custard-Apple (Anona squamosa), and the Guava 

 (Ptidium) ; and it is said that the cabbage palm attains the height 

 of 200 feet. Coffee is an article of general and advantageous growth, 

 and the tobacco of Cuba is unequalled. Cloves are becoming generally 

 cultivated ; allspice (Myrtut pimento) is a common tree on the hills ; 

 and in some of the islands the nutmeg, imported from the East Indies, 

 thrive* admirably. Aloe-trees are cultivated in Jamaica and Barbadoes 

 for the ake of their inspissated juice. Mandioc and yams are the 

 common food of the negroes, along with plantains and rice ; and a 

 kind of arum (Caladium aculentwn) is used at table as spinach is with 

 us. Considering the number of degrees of latitude over which the 

 West Indies extend, it is impossible to give any general account of 

 their plants which will be true of all of them ; it must therefore be 

 borne in mind, that in general their flora agrees with that of the 

 continent hi the same latitude over against which they lie. 



In all the remainder of eastern tropical America similar characters 

 of vegetationare found. Where the ah- is dry and hot, the planta assume 

 a parched and stunted character ; but wherever, as is usually the 

 case, there is a perfect combination of heat and moisture, the grandeur 

 of the trees and the beauty of the flowers are beyond description. 

 But the genera and species gradually change as we recede southward 

 from the line. In those provinces to the north of the line, which, 

 under the name of Cumana and the Ouyanas, form a sort of crest to 

 the equatorial region, the land beyond the limits of cultivation is 

 overspread by impervious forests, which, in the language of an eye- 

 witness and a botanist, are so completely choked up by huge twiners, 

 spiny shrubs, and sharp-edged grasses, that a hatchet is necessary at 

 every step to clear the way. It is here however that the bitter 

 quassia, the fragrant tonga bean, which is so much employed for 

 perfuming snuff, and the rose-wood, are produced. Cannon-ball trees 

 (Lccythu) drop their monstrous fruits in these forests, and furnish the 

 numerous monkeys with a ceaseless store of amusement and food ; 

 and arborescent species of the cinchona tribe (Portlands), c., furnish 

 medicinal barks scarcely inferior to that of Peru. 



In linizil the country is more open, and the scenery is consequently 

 more diversified ; besides which, it may be easily conceived that many 

 moat striking changes would occur in 23 degrees of latitude. A 

 notion of ite average state may be obtained from a consideration of 

 the plants of the almost central province of Minas Geraes, an account 

 of which, by M. Auguste de St. Hilaire, gives us many facts relating 

 to the state of its vegetation before it became altered by the inroads 

 of the Portuguese settlers. 



The whole face of Brazil may be said to be divided into forests, 

 deciduous stunted woods, and immense plains, each of which is charac- 

 terised by a peculiar vegetation. 



When a European arrives in South America, there is nothing that 

 produces so striking an impression upon him as the general resemblance 

 that he perceives between the external aspect of the forests of the 

 New World and those which he has left behind ; a little more grandeur 

 in the proportions, and a deeper green, together with a clear and 

 brilliant sky, constitute the principal difference in the two scenes. 

 To see the full beauty of an equinoctial forest, it is necessary for the 

 traveller to bury him.self in its deep recesses ; and there indeed, instead 

 of the fatiguing monotony of our European oaks and firs, every tree 

 has a character of its own, each has its peculiar foliage, and probably 

 also a tint unlike that of the trees which surround it. Gigantic 

 vegetables of the most different families intermix their branches ; five- 

 leaved bignonias grow by the side of bonduc-trees ; cassias shed their 

 yellow blossoms upon the rich fronds of arborescent ferns ; myrtles 

 and eugenias, with their thousand arms, contrast with the elegant 

 simplicity of palms ; and among the airy foliage of the mimosa, the 

 cecropia elevates ite giant leaves and heavy candelabra-shaped branches. 

 Of some trees the trunk is perfectly smooth, of others it is defended 

 OKOO. Div., VOL. I. 



)y enormous spines, and the whole are often apparently sustained by 

 the slanting stems of a huge wild fig-tree. With us, the oak, the 

 chestnut, and the beech seem as if they bore no flowers, so small are 

 ;hey and so little distinguishable except by naturalists ; but in the 

 'crests of South America it is often the most gigantic trees that 

 )roduce the most brilliant flowers ; cassias hang down their pendants 

 >f golden blossoms ; vochisias unfold their singular bunches ; corollas, 

 onger than those of our foxglove, sometimes yellow or sometimes 

 jurple, load the arborescent bignonias ; while the chorisias are covered, 

 as it were, with lilies, only their colours are richer and more varied ; 

 frasses also appear, in the form of bamboos, as the most graceful of 

 ;rees ; bauhinias, bignonias, and aroideous plants cling round the trees 

 ike enormous cables ; orchideous plants and bromelias overrun their 

 imbs, or fasten themselves to them when prostrated by the storm, 

 and make even their dead remains become verdant with leaves and 

 lowers not their own. Such are the ancient forests, flourishing in a 

 damp and fertile soil, and clothed with perpetual green. 



Far different are the deciduous stunted woods, called Catingas, 

 which are produced on a dry sandy soil, and are not dense enough to 

 prevent the evaporation of their scanty earth ; they periodically lose 

 all their leaves in March and April, not recovering them till the month 

 of August. When stripped of their leaves, they have a great similarity 

 M the woods of Europe in their winter nakedness, bushes and small 

 ;rees mixed here and there with individuals of a moderate size consti- 

 tuting their composition. Small acanthaceous plants, resembling our 

 own Labiaice, fill up the intervals in these woods, and one might 

 almost fancy one's self in a European wood in a fine autumnal day, 

 if it were not for the palms which here and there raise their heads 

 above the other trees. 



As for the plains, they consist for the most part of immense tracts, 

 which have no more horizon than an ocean ; destitute of even turf, 

 they are covered not only with grasses of different kinds, but with 

 undershrubs and small bushes of myrtles, melastomas, Composites, and 

 a multitude of other things. Among these, a few trees here and 

 there collect into a cluster, and form a kind of oasis in a vegetable 

 desert. 



To the southward, all these things gradually fade away ; vegetation 

 becomes less and less tropical, never however assuming a European 

 aspect, till at last in Patagonia and the islands adjacent to it an 

 antarctic imitation of northern vegetation makes its appearance. 

 Beech-trees of new species, singular parasitical plants (Miiodendron), 

 winter's bark, stunted berberries, evergreen arbutus with a trailing 

 habit, plants like buttercups yet not buttercups, form the distin- 

 guishing features ; and the traveller occasionally is astonished at 

 seeing arborescent fuchsias in flower, with humming-birds flitting 

 among their branches in the midst of a snow-storm. 



The western coast is far different, latitude for latitude, from the 

 eastern : chilled by the unmitigated cold blasts from the south pole, 

 destitute of large rivers and of all means of irrigation for a very con- 

 siderable extent, it is a mere succession of fertile valleys and desert 

 hilly plains. To the south, the sides of the mountains are covered 

 with the Araucaria pine ; in Chili, the peculiar forms of numerous 

 species of calceolaria, schizanthus, loasa, adesmia, azara, and escallouia 

 form a flora of a totally different aspect from that of Buenos Ayres, 

 while the sandy plains abound in numerous species of the purslane 

 tribe (Caiandrinia) and of Salpiglosiii. Numerous bushes of Com- 

 poiitte give an arid but glittering aspect to other parts ; and in the 

 spring, at the tune of the melting of the snows, the sides of the 

 mountains are enamelled with the beautiful flowers of the Pica di Lora 

 (Chlortea), Leucocoryne, and other herbs. 



Near the line a new change comes over the face of nature. In the 

 neighbourhood of Lima, towards the interior, epiphytal orchideous 

 plants just begin to exist ; plants which as we advance to the south- 

 ward become the most singular feature of the flora, on account of 

 their enormous numbers. In the mountains beyond the line in New 

 Granada, between the level of the sea and 8000 or 9000 feet above it, 

 are found the forests that contain the rare cinchona trees, the rind of 

 which, called the Jesuit's Bark, is one of the most precious medicinal 

 productions of the New World. With these grow the winter's-bark 

 tree, gaily-marked flowers called alstromerias, fuchsias with enormous 

 blossoms, and many kinds of oaks. 



The remainder of the American coast to the north has as little 

 similarity in the vegetation to that of the eastern side of the dividing 

 ridge as the southern hemisphere. Northern California approaches it 

 the most, but even here the distinction is most obvious. Various 

 species of Calochorttu, numerous currants with richly-coloured flowers, 

 and especially great numbers of Pokmoniacece of unknown kinds, are 

 characteristic forms ; pines also, similar to those of Mexico, again 

 appear on the hills, and perennial lupines begin to abound ; the latter 

 are so much increased in the north-west country as to become a 

 distinctive feature of the region ; with these are mixed a remarkable 

 plant called Clarkia, pulcheUa, and many kinds of Pentstemon. The 

 shrubs are berberries with pinnated leaves, Gaultheria S/iatton, and 

 more of the gay-flowered currants ; and the trees number among them 

 the Broad-Leaved Sycamore (Acer macrophyllum), with firs and pines 

 rising to a height exceeding 200 feet. What is very remarkable, the 

 species.are more'like those of Siberia than of the United States, and 

 the most characteristic forms of the latter region are altogether 



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