174 EXTREME TEMPERATUEE8. 





Havannah : yet the latitude of Macao is 1 more southerly 

 than that of the Havannah ; and the latter to.vn and Canton 

 are, within nearly a minute, on the same parallel. The ther- 

 mometer at Canton has sometimes almost reached the point 

 zero ; and by the effect of reflection, ice has been found on 

 the terraces of houses. Although this great cold never 

 lasts more than one day, the English merchants residing at 

 Canton, like to make chimney-fires in their apartments 

 from November to January ; while at the Havannah, the 

 artificial warmth even of a brazero is not required. Hail is 

 frequent and the hail-stones are extremely large in thf 

 Asiatic climate of Canton and Macao, while it is scarcely 

 seen once in fifteen years at the Havannah. In these three 

 places the thermometer sometimes keeps up for several hours 

 between and 4 (cent.) ; and yet, (a circumstance which 

 appears to be very remarkable), snow has never been seen to 

 fall ; and notwithstanding the great lowering of the tempe- 

 rature, the bananas and the palm-trees are as beautiful 

 around Canton, Macao, and the Havannah, as in the plains 

 nearest the equator. 



In the island of Cuba the lowering of the temperature 

 lasts only during intervals of such short duration, that in 

 general neither the banana, the sugar-cane, nor other pro- 

 ductions of the torrid zone, suffer much. "We know how 

 well plants of vigorous organization resist temporary cold, 

 and that the orange trees of Genoa survive the fall of snow, 

 and endure cold which does not more than exeeed 6 or 7 

 below freezing-point. As the vegetation of the island of 

 Cuba bears the character of the vegetation of the regions 

 near the equator, we are surprized to find even in the 

 plains a vegetable form of the temperate climates, and 

 mountains of the equatorial part of Mexico. I have often 

 directed the attention of botanists to this extraordinary 

 phenomenon in the geography of plants. The pine (Pinus 

 occidentalis) is not found in the Lesser Antilles; not even 

 in Jamaica (between 17f" and 18^' of latitude). It is only 

 seen further north, in the mountains of San Domingo, 

 and in all that part of the island of Cuba, situated be- 

 tween 20 and 23 lat. It attains a height of from 

 sixty to seventy feet ; and it is remarkable that the 

 eahoba* (mahogany), and the pine vegetate at the island 

 Swieteioia Mahogani, Linn. 



