128 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



(81.5 and 86, Fahr.) ; rarely ascending so high as 1900 

 English feet on the declivities of the Andes : but in the 

 mountain palms to which I have alluded, the beautiful 

 Wax-palm (Ceroxylon andicola), the Palmeto of Azufral 

 at the Pass of Quindiu (Oreodoxa frigida), and the reed-like 

 Kunthia montana (Cana de la Yibora) of Pasto, attain 

 elevations between 6400 and 9600 English feet above the 

 level of the sea, where the thermometer often sinks at night as 

 low as 4.8 and 6 of Reaumur (42.8 and 45. 5, Fahr.), and 

 the mean temperature scarcely amounts to 1 1 Reaumur, or 

 56.S Fahrenheit. These Alpine Palms grow among Nut trees, 

 yew-leaved species of Podocarpus and Oaks (Quercus grana- 

 tensis). I have determined by exact barometrical measure- 

 ment the upper arid lower limits of the range of the Wax- 

 Palm. We first began to find it on the eastern declivity of 

 Andes of Quindiu, at the height of 7440 (about 7930 

 English) feet above the level of the sea, and it extended 

 upwards as far as the Garita del Paramo and los Yolcancitos, 

 or to 9100 (almost 9700 English) feet : several years after 

 my departure from the country the distinguished botanist 

 Don Jose Caldas, who had been long our companion amidst 

 the mountains of New Granada, and who afterwards fell a 

 victim to Spanish party hatred, found three species of palms 

 growing in the Paramo de Guanacos very near the limits of 

 perpetual snow; therefore probably at an elevation of more 

 than 13000 (13855 English) feet. (Semanario de Santa 

 Fe de Bogota, 1809, No. 21, p. 163.) Even beyond the 

 tropics, in the latitude of 28 North, the Chamrerops mar- 



