302 VEGETATION, CLIMATE, POPULATION, 
tion of the cultivated variety by Europeans. A 
species of pine (Pinus occidentalis) occurs here and 
in St Domingo, but has not been seen in any of the 
other West India Islands. 
The climate of Havannah, although tropical, is 
marked by an unequal distribution of heat at dif- 
ferent periods of the year, indicating a transition 
to the climates of the temperate zone. The mean 
temperature is 78°3°, but in the interior only 73-4°. 
The hottest months, July and August, do not give 
a greater average than $2°4°, and the coldest, De- 
cember and January, present the mean of 69°8°. In 
summer the thermometer does not rise above 82° 
or 86°, and its depression in winter so low as 50° or 
53°5° is rare. When the north wind blows several 
weeks, ice is sometimes formed at night at a little 
distance from the coast, at an inconsiderable eleva- 
tion above the sea. Yet the great lowerings of tem- 
perature which occasionally take place are of so short 
duration, that the palm-trees, bananas, or the sugar- 
cane, do not suffer from them. Snow never falls, 
and hail so rarely that it is only observed during 
thunder-storms, and with blasts from the S.S.W. 
once in fifteen or twenty years. The changes how- 
ever are very rapid, and the inhabitants complain 
of cold when the thermometer falls quickly to 70°. 
Hurricanes are of much less frequent eccurrence in 
Cuba than in the other West India Islands. 
In 1817 the population was estimated at 630,980. 
There were 290,021 whites, 115,691 free copper- 
coloured men, and 225,268 slaves. The original 
inhabitants have entirely disappeared, as in all the 
other West India Islands. Intellectual cultivation 
is almost entirely restricted to the whites ; and al- 
though in Havannah the first society is not per- 
ai 
