269 



success. On several points of the coast, the 

 country assumes the character of a tropical land- 

 scape ; and we recognize, that the region of the 

 palms extends beyond the limits of the torrid 

 zone. The chamaerops and the date tree flourish 

 in the fertile plains of Murviedro, on the coasts 

 of Genoa, and in Provence, near Antibes, be- 

 tween the thirty-ninth and forty-fourth degrees 

 of latitude : a few trees of the latter species, 

 planted within the walls of the city of Rome, 

 resist even a cold of 2*5° below the freezing 

 point. But if the south of Europe does not yet 

 but feebly share in the gifts lavished by Nature 

 on the zone of palms, the isle of Ten eriffe, placed 

 under the parallel of Egypt, southern Persia, and 

 Florida, is already decorated with the greater 

 part of the vegetable forms, that increase the 

 majesty of the landscape in regions near the 

 equator. 



On reviewing the different tribes of indigenous 

 plants, we regret the not having found trees with 

 small pinnated leaves, and arborescent gramina. 

 No species of the numerous family of the sensi- 

 tive plants has pushed it's migrations as far as 

 the archipelago of the Canary islands, while on 

 both continents they have been discovered as far 

 as the thirty-eighth and fortieth degrees of lati- 

 tude. In America the schranckia uncinata of 

 Willdenow * advances even to the forests of 



* Mimosa^iorridula. Michaux, 



