164 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



brought back with us, not one was collected to the north of 

 Quito and the Yolcano of Pichincha ; but my friend Pro- 

 fessor Kunth remarks that Calceolaria perfoliata, which 

 Boussingault and Captain Hall found at Quito, advances to 

 New Granada, and that this species, as well as C. integri- 

 folia of Santa Fe de Bogota, were given by Mutis to the 

 great Linnaeus. 



The species of Pinus which are so frequent in the tropical 

 Antilles and in the tropical mountains of Mexico do not 

 pass the isthmus of Panama, and are not found in the 

 equally mountainous parts of the tropical portion of South 

 America, and in the high plains of New Granada, Pasto, 

 and Quito. I have been both in the plains and on the 

 mountains from the Rio Sinu, near the isthmus of Panama, 

 to 12 S. lat. ; and in this tract of almost 1600 geographical 

 miles the only forms of needle-trees which I saw were a 

 Taxus-like species of Podocarpus with stems 60 (64 Eng.) 

 feet high (Podocarpus taxifolia), growing in the Pass of 

 Quindiu and in the Paramo de Saraguru, in 4 26' north, 

 and 3 40' south latitude; and an Ephedra (E. americana) 

 near Guallabamba, north. of Quito. 



Among the Coniferse there are common to the northern 

 and southern hemispheres the genera Taxus, Gnetum, 

 Ephedra, and Podocarpus. The last-named genus was 

 distinguished from Pinus long before L'Heritier by Columbus 

 himself, who wrote on the 25th of November, 1 492 : " Pinales 

 en la Serrania de Haiti que no llevan pinas, pero frutos 

 que parecen azeytunos del Axarafe de Sevilla/'' (See m.v 

 Examen crit. T. iii. p. 24.) There are species of Taxus 

 from the Cape of Good Hope to 61 N. lat. in Scandinavia, 



