8 



from the top of the hill of San Francisco, an ex- 

 tensive view over the sea, the plain covered 

 with bera* and its golden flowers, and the 

 Mountains of the Brigantine. We were struck 

 at the great proximity in which the Cordillera 

 presented'itself, before the disk of the rising sun 

 had reached the horizon. The tint of the sum- 

 mits is of a deeper blue, their outline is more 

 strongly marked, and their masses are more 

 detached, as long as the transparency of the air 

 remains undisturbed by the vapours, which, ac- 

 cumulated during the night in the valleys, rise 

 in proportion as the atmosphere acquires 

 warmth. 



At the hospital of the Divina Pastor a, the 

 path turns to the north-east, and stretches for 

 two leagues over a soil without trees, and for- 

 merly levelled by the waters. We there found 

 not only cacti, tufts of cistus-leaved tribulus, 

 and the beautiful purple euphorbia cultivat- 

 ed in the gardens of the Havanna under the sin- 

 gular name of dictamno real, but also the avi- 

 cennia, the allionia, the sesuvium, the thalinum, 

 and most of the portulaceous plants, that grow 

 on the banks of the gulph of Cariaco. This geo- 

 graphical distribution of plants appears to desig- 



* Palo sano, zygophyllum arboreum, Jacq. The flowers 

 have the smell of vanilla, 

 t Euphorbia tithymaloides. 



