360 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



cultivated, S. sieboldiana. From the southern temperate zone I know 

 only two willows described by Thunberg (S. hirsuta and S. mucro- 

 nata) ; they grow by the side of Protea argentea (which has itself 

 very much the physiognomy of a willow), on the banks of the Orange 

 River, and their leaves and young shoots form the food of the hip- 

 popotamus. Willows are entirely wanting in Australia and the 

 neighboring islands. 



( 31 ) p. 244. " Myrtacese." 



An elegant form, with stiff, shining, thickly set, generally unin- 

 dented, small leaves, studded with pellucid dots. Myrtaceae give a 

 peculiar character to three districts of the earth's surface : the 

 South of Europe, particularly the calcareous and trachytic islands 

 which rise above the surface of the Mediterranean ; the continent 

 of New Holland, adorned with Eucalyptus, Metrosideros, and Lep- 

 tospermum ; and an intertropical region, part of which is low, and 

 part from nine to ten thousand feet high (about 9590 to 10,660 

 English), in the Andes of South America. This mountain district, 

 called in Quito the district of the Paramos, is entirely covered with 

 trees which have a myrtle-like aspect and character, even though they 

 may not all belong to the natural family of Myrtacse. Here, at the 

 above-named elevation, grow the Escallonia myrtilloides, E. tubar, 

 Simplocos alstonia, some species of Myrica, and the beautiful Myr- 

 tus microphylla which we have figured in the Plantes equinoxiales, 

 t. i. p. 21, pi. iv. We found it growing on mica slate, and extend- 

 ing to an elevation of more than ten thousand English feet, on the 

 Paramo de Saraguru, near Vinayacu and Alto de Pulla, which is 

 adorned with so many lovely alpine flowering plants. Myrtus myr- 

 sinoides even extends in the Paramo de G-uamani up to 10,500 

 (11,190 English) feet. Of the 40 species of the Genus Myrtus 

 which we collected in the equinoctial zone, and of which 37 were 

 undescribed, much the greater part belonged, however, to the plains 

 and lower mountains. From the mild tropical mountain climate of 

 Mexico we brought back only a single species (Myrtus xalapensis) ; 

 but the Tierra templada, towards the Volcano of Orizaba, must no 

 doubt contain several more. We found M. maritima near Acapulco, 

 quite on the sea-coast of the Pacific," 



