498 



and the Pyrennees. We were surprised at not 

 meeting with any species of befaria in the moun- 

 tains of Mexico, between the rhododendrons of 

 Santa Fe and Caraccas, and those of Florida. 



In the small wood, that covers the Silla, the 

 befaria ledifolia is only three or four feet high. 

 The trunk is divided, even from it's root, into a 

 great many slender and even verticillate 

 branches. The leaves are oval, lanceolate, 

 glaucous on their interior part, and rolled up 

 toward the sides. The whole plant is covered 

 with long and viscous hairs, and emits a very 

 agreeable resinous smell. The bees visit it's 

 fine purple flowers ; which are very abundant, 

 as in all the alpine plants, and, when in full 

 blossom, often near an inch wide. 



The rhododendron of Switzerland, in those 

 places where it grows between eight hundred 

 and a thousand toises of elevation, belongs to 

 a climate, the mean temperature of which is 

 + 2° and — 1°, like that of the plains of Lap- 

 land. In this zone the coldest months are — 4°, 

 and — 10° : the hottest, 12° and 7°. Thermo- 

 metrical observations, made at the same heights 

 and in the same latitudes, render it probable, 

 that at the Pejual of the Silla, one thousand 

 toises above the Caribbean Sea, the mean tem- 

 perature of the air is still 17° or 18° ; and that 

 the thermometer keeps in the coolest season 

 between 15° and 20° in the day, and in the 



