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not only with the aralia, the alstonia theseformis, 

 the begonia, and the yellow bark-tree (cinchona 

 cordifolia), but with oaks, with elms, and other 

 plants, the growth of which recalls to his mind 

 the vegetation of Europe ; when suddenly he 

 discovers as from a terrace, and at his feet, a 

 country producing the palm, the banana, and 

 the sugar cane. The crevice into which the Rio 

 de Bogota throws itself communicating with the 

 plains of the warm region (tierra caliente), a 

 few palm trees have sprung up at the foot of the 

 cataract. This particular circumstance leads 

 the inhabitants of Santa Fe to observe, that the 

 cataract of the Tequendama is so high, that the 

 water falls in one bound, from a cold (tierra fria) 

 into a warm country. We are sensible, that 

 a difference of one hundred and seventy-five 

 metres of height is too inconsiderable, to have 

 much influence on the temperature of the air ; 

 and it is not on account of the height of the soil, 

 that the vegetation of the plain of Canoas con- 

 trasts with that of the ravine. If the rock of 

 Tequendama, which is a gritstone with a clayey 

 basis, were not quite perpendicular ; and if the 

 elevated plain of Canoas were sheltered like the 

 crevice, the palm trees, which flourish at the 

 foot of the cataract, would have pushed their 

 migrations to the upper level of the river. The 

 appearance of this vegetation is so much the 

 more interesting to the inhabitants of the valley 



