of the Old World and the New World. 171 
leaved acacias, the flowers of which shine with the liveliest colors, 
but whose narrow foliage, turned edgewise to the vertical sun, 
casts no shadow. Everywhere, long and abundant leaves, an 
intense verdure, a ae and ihe apa vegetation, these are 
what we find in t ropical Amer 
North America, in spite of ni more continental climate, shares 
no less in this character of the New World. The beauty and 
extent of the vast forests that cover its soil, the variety of the 
arborescent species composing them, the strong and lofty size of 
the trees which grow there, all these are too well known for me | 
to stop to describe them. It is because this continent adds to ths 
a more abundant irrigation, a soil slightly mountainous, almost — 
everywhere fertile, securing to it always an equal m cs mana 
more abundant harvest of all the vegetables useful to man 
Not only is the vegetation abundant in the New World, but it. 
is universal, and this is a farther characteristic distinguishing itt 
from the Old. We do not see there a vast deserts, so com- =~ 
mon in the other continents, and occupying a considerable por- * 
tion of their surface. The Deserts of Californi a and that of Ata-* 
mens. The llanos of Orinoco, which thieies Pyeotogital nature —" 
dooms apparently to the fate of Sahara, are, copiously watered ~~ 
during the ys season, and are covered me with: 9 an, admirable . * . .- 
0 the reed ar swe} Salen: met the unis, Se rich, : 
ange a mitiititude of indigenous animals,” *mingjéd | 
ses, wild 3 
eshe families 3 ay 
‘the num 
