ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 327 



as a form exclusively characteristic of the New Continent; and yet the 

 American tapir has been found as it were repeated in that of Malacca 

 (Tapirus indicus, Cuv.). 



Although the species of Cactus belong, generally speaking, more 

 properly to the tropical regions, yet some are indigenous in the tem- 

 perate zone, as on the Missouri and in Louisiana, Cactus missuriensis 

 and C. vivipara; and Back saw with astonishment the shores of 

 Rainy Lake, in north lat. 48 40', covered with C. opuntia. South 

 of the Equator, the species of Cactus do not extend beyond the Rio 

 Itata, in lat. 36, and the Rio Biobio, in lat. 37 15'. In the 

 part of the Andes which is situated between the tropics, I have seen 

 species of Cactus (C. sepium, C. chlorocarpus, C. bonplandii) growing 

 on elevated plains nine or ten thousand (French) feet (about 9590 

 and 10,660 English) above the level of the sea; but a still more 

 alpine character is shown in latitudes belonging to the temperate 

 zone, in Chili, by the Opuntia ovallei, which has yellow flowers and 

 a creeping stem. The upper and lower limits beyond which this 

 plant does not extend have been accurately determined by barometric 

 measurement by the learned botanist Claude Gay : it has never been 

 found lower than 6330 French (6746 English) feet, and it reaches 

 and even passes the limits of perpetual snow, having been found on 

 uncovered masses of rock rising from amongst the snows. The 

 last small plants were collected on spots situated 12^820 French 

 (13,663 English) feet above the level of the sea. (Claudio Gay, 

 Flora Chilensis, 1848, p. 30.) Some species of Echino-cactus are 

 also true alpine plants in Chili. A counterpart to the fine-haired 

 Cactus senilis is found in the thick-wooled Cereus lanatus, called by 

 the natives Piscol, which has handsome red fruit. We found it in 

 Peru, near Guancabamba, when on our journey to the Amazons 

 River. The dimensions of the different kinds of Cactace93 (a group 

 on which the Prince of Salm-Dyck has been the first to throw great 

 light) offer great variety and contrasts. Echinocactus wislizeni, 

 which is 4 feet high and 7 feet in circumference (4 feet 3 inches 

 and 7 feet 5 inches English), is still only the third in size, being 

 surpassed by E. ingens (Zucc.) and by E. platyceras (Lem.). 

 (Wislizenus, Tour to Northern Mexico, 1848, p. 97.) The- Echino- 

 cactus stainesii reaches from 2 to 2 J feet diameter; E. visnago, from 



