422 COSMOS. 



quately appreciated by those who are conversant with the 

 ancient vigour of the language at the period in which ho 

 wrote. 



The physiognomy and forms of the vegetation ,*' the impene- 

 trable thickets of the forests " in which one can scarcely dis- 

 tinguish the stems to which the several blossoms and leaves 

 belong," the wild luxuriance of the flowering soil along the 

 humid shores, and the rose-coloured flamingoes which, fishing 

 at early morn at the mouth of the rivers, impart animation to 

 the scenery all in turn arrested the attention of the old 

 mariner as he sailed along the shores of Cuba, between the 

 small Lucayan islands and the Jardinillos, which I too have 

 visited. Each newly discovered land seems to him more 

 beautiful than the one last described, and he deplores his 

 inability to find words in which to express the sweet impres- 

 sions awakened in his mind. Wholly unacquainted with 

 botany (although, through the influence of Arabian and Jew- 

 ish physicians, some superficial knowledge of plants had been 

 diffused in Spain), he was led, by a simple love of nature, to 

 individualise all the unknown forms he beheld. Thus, in 

 Cuba alone, he distinguishes seven or eight different species 

 of palms, more beautiful and taller than the date-tree (varie- 

 dades de palmas super lores a las nuestras ensu belleza y altura). 

 He informs his learned friend Anghiera, that he has seen 

 pines and palms (palmeta et pinetd) wonderfully associated 

 together in one and the same plain; and he even so acutely 

 observed the vegetation around him, that he was the first to 

 notice that there were pines on the mountains of Cibao, 

 whose fruits are not fir-cones but berries like the olives of the 

 Axarafe de Sevilla; and further, as I have already remarked, 

 Columbus* already separated the genus Podocarpus from the 

 family of Abietineae. 



" The beauty of the new land," says the discoverer, "far 

 surpasses the Campina de Cordova. The trees are bright, 

 with an ever- verdant foliage, and are always laden with fruit. 

 The plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air is 

 warm as that of April in Castile, and the nightingale sings 

 more melodiously than words can describe. At night the 

 song of other smaller birds resounds sweetly, and I have also 

 beard our grasshoppers and frogs. Once I came to a deeply 

 * See p. 285, 



