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since they touch the origin, the first existence 

 of a gerrne of life. We may add, that the at- 

 tempts which have been made, to explain the 

 distribution of various species on the globe by 

 the sole influence of climate, date at a period 

 when physical geography was still in it's infancy; 

 when, recurring incessantly to pretended con- 

 trasts between the two worlds, it was imagined j 

 that the whole of Africa and of America resem- 

 bled the deserts of Egypt and the marshes of 

 Cayenne. At present, when men judge of the 

 state of things not from one type arbitrarily cho- 

 sen, but from positive knowledge, it is ascer- 

 tained, that the two continents in their im- 

 mense extent contain countries that are altoge- 

 ther analogous. There are regions of America 

 as barren and burning as the interior of Africa. 

 The islands that produce the spices of India are 

 scarcely remarkable for their dryness ; and it is 

 not on account of the humidity of the climate, 

 as it has been affirmed in recent works, that 

 the New Continent is deprived of those fine 

 species of laurinese and myristicae, which are 

 found united in one little corner of the Earth in 

 the Archipelago of India. For some years past 

 the real cinnamon has been cultivated with 

 success in several parts of the New Continent ; 

 and a zone that produces the coumarouna*, the 



* The Tonga bean, coumarouna odora of Aubiet. 



