18 



criminate profusion, at some one favoured crisis of the year, they 

 are dispensed with an all-wise frugality, and " yield their fruits 

 every month." 



Their nature also is adapted to the condition of mankind. 

 Where sultry beams are shed upon the torrid zone, umbrageous 

 groves extend their branches. Where the Polar skies are cheered 

 by a short summer's reign, its vegetation is distinguished by a 

 rapid* progress to maturity. Where manual labour is discoura- 

 ged by oppressive heat, and where the mind is destitute of moral 

 enterprise, abundant aliment is yielded to the lowliest cultivator 

 of the soil. But in the temperate regions of the earth, where, un- 

 exposed to the depressing influence of an ungenial atmosphere, 

 man walks abroad, delighting to exert his energies, here Nature 

 calls forth talent, and awakens industry, by obstacles, which she 

 allures them to surmount. As if anticipating the caprice of man, 

 in countries, where the valley and the mountain each invite his 

 residence, the products of the torrid zone are found within this 

 vale; and on that towering summit is displayed to view a 

 Northern} vegetation. 



* In Lapland and at Olekminsk in Siberia, barley ripens in seven or eight 

 weeks. See Georgi as quoted by Malte-Brun, Syst. Geog. B. XX. Grain. 



t Les valle'es des Andes sont ornees de bananiers et de palmiers ; plus 

 haut se trouve 1'arbre bienfaisam dontl'ecorce est de febrifuge le plus prompt 

 et le plus salutaire. Dans cette region temperee des quinquinas, etplus haut 

 vers celle des escallonia, s'elevent des chenes, des sapins, des berberis, des 

 nlnus, des rubus, et une foule de genres que nons ne croyons appartenir 

 qu'auxpaysdu Nord Aussi 1'habitant des regions equinoxialesconnoit toutes 

 les formes vegetables que la nature a disposees autour de lui: la terre de>el- 

 oppe a ses yeux un spectacle aussi varie que la voute azuree du ciel, qui ne 

 lui cache aucune de ses constellations. See Humboldt's " Essai sur la 

 Ge"og." near the close. 



