116 
As far, however, as the height of seven 
thousand feet, all kinds of fruit are culti- 
vated with success; and the markets of 
the colder country are thus constantly 
supplied from the neighbouring valleys or 
* Calientes.” Humboldt is mistaken in 
supposing the Olive to be always barren, 
(semper sterilis manet. p. 154). On the 
Quitenian Andes, near Ambato, it produces 
abundantly, though little attention is paid 
to its culture. 
hen we ascend above the extreme 
limit of cultivation, which may be placed 
at eleven thousand five hundred feet, and 
pass the region of the Barnadesie, Hy- 
rica, Thibaudie, Gaultherie, Bud- 
diee, and other coriaceous-leaved shrubs, 
which, at this elevation, form thickets of 
perpetual bloom and verdure, we enter 
the region of paramos, (thirteen to fifteen 
thousand feet), properly so called, which 
Ww 
limit of forest-trees (Geogr. 
and, in fact, very few are generally met 
with, near this elevation, on the flanks of 
the Cordillera, which join the inhabited 
table-lands. But I have observed on cross- 
ing the side of Pichincha, towards the un- 
inhabited forests of Esmeraldas, that the 
forests cover nearly the whole space which, 
on the eastern slope, is a naked, paramo. 
Is this owing to a difference of climate, or 
has the practice, universal in the Andes, 
of burning the paramos, together with the 
demand for fire-wood in the vicinity of 
— large towns, contributed to give this re- 
. gion the bare aspect it has at present? 
"Further observations on the mountain 
slopes, towards Maynas and Macas, are 
: E to throw light on this point. 
— . Is certain, from the present aspect of the 
a inhabited plain of Quito, where we meet 
.& few scattered trees of Arroyan, 
(Myrtus ), and artificial plantations of Ca- 
puli, (Prunus salicifolia ), we should con- 
clude that the region of forests had scarcely 
ascended to the height of eight thousand- 
feet; yet, some of the houses of Quito are 
Sr 
we 
Lara 
et 
PHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
still standing, built of timber cut on the 
Spot. 
"OS 
caped the notice of those who have as- 
cended towards the limit of perpetual - 
snow, is the variety and luxuriance of the — 
Flora, at the very point where the powers | 
of vegetation are on the brink of total sus- 
pension. At above fifteen thousand feet, 
the ground is covered with Gentianas, . 
purple, azure, and scarlet; the Drabas ; 
the Alchemillas; the Culcitium rufescens, 
with its woolly hood; the rich Ranuncu- 
lus Gusmanni ; the Lupinus nanus, with — 
its cones of blue flowers enveloped in - 
white down; the Sida Pichinchensis spot- 
ting the ground with purple; the Chuqui- — 
raga insignis;! all limited within a zone - 
of about five hundred feet, from whence 
they seem scarcely to be separable by any — 
Several at- | 
effort at artificial cultivation. 
tempts which I have made to raise the Gen- 
tians, Sida, and other plants, of the sum- | 
mits of the Andes, at the height of Quito, 
e been invariably unsuccessful. The 
Vire: indeed, to domesticate plants in 
a situation less elevated, is attended with — 
greater difficulties than the transport of 
plants from one climate to another. gi 
accustomed ; whereas, transferred from one 
latitude to another, the difference is rather 
in its duration than in its intensity. It is 
easier to accustom a plant of the lowlands 
to this elevation, than to bring down those 
of the paramos. 'Thus, the Orange and 
Lemon trees, Aguacates (Laurus Persea) 
Ricinus communis, Datura arborea—all 
natives of hot lowlands, grow and flourish 
more or less, at an elevation of eight thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea. 
Quito, April 15, 1835. 
1 The other plants that occur on the sandy crater of 
gemini 
Riobamba, are Cerastium densum, Astragalus 
Culcitium 
nivale and reflexum, Aster rupestre 
s à $ 
A circumstance, which cannot have es- — 
perd a 
A 
