ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 189 



This experienced traveller, who had been placed by Ferdinand 

 the Catholic as director of the gold-washings in Hayti, says : 

 " Among the many ferns there are some which I reckon 

 among trees, for they are as thick and as tall as pines 

 (Helechos que yo cuento por arboles, tan gruesos como 

 grandes pinos y muy altos). They grow chiefly in the 

 mountains and where there is much water." The height is 

 exaggerated. In the dense forests round Caripe even our 

 Cyathea speciosa only attains a height of 30 to 35 (32 to 

 87 English) feet ; and an excellent observer, Ernst Dieffen- 

 bach, in the northernmost of the three islands of New 

 Zealand saw no stems of Cyathea dealbata of more than 40 

 (42J English) feet in height. In the Cyathea speciosa and 

 the Meniscium of the Chaymas missions we observed, in the 

 midst of the shadiest primeval forest, in very luxuriantly 

 growing individuals, the scaly stems covered with a shining 

 carbonaceous powder. It seemed like a singular decomposi- 

 tion of the fibrous parts of the old frond stalks. (Humboldt, 

 Eel. hist. T. i. p. 437.) 



Between the tropics, where, on the declivities of the 

 Cordilleras, climates are placed successively in stages one 

 above another, the proper zone of the tree-ferns is between 

 three and five thousand feet (about 3200 and 5330 English) 

 above the level of the sea. In South America and in the 

 Mexican highlands they seldom descend lower towards the 

 plains than 1200 (about 1280 Eng.) feet. The mean 

 temperature of this happy zone falls between 17 and 14. 5 

 Reaumur (70.2 and 64.6 Fahr.) This region enters the 

 lowest stratum of clouds, or that which floats next above the 



