FRAGMENT OF A LETTER 
OF 
BARON ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT TO MR. ALBERT BERG. 
If in the noble creations of painting our imagination delights to find animated pictures of exotic scenery, this 
enjoyment is by no means exclusively confined to the majestic in the forms or in the richness and wild 
luxuriance of the soil which such pictures may present, but is at the same time reflected in our understanding. 
It reminds us of the intimate relation between the distribution of forms and the influences of climate depending 
on the altitude of the plateaux, as also on the latitude. It is this relation which, by presenting to us the 
wonders and peculiar characteristics of the vegetation, renders that, which at first seemed only picturesque, 
both instructive and suggestive in the field of Physical Geography. 
Before I enter, my dear Sir, upon the charm spread over the delightful pages which you have brought 
from the tropical regions of South America, I have thought it right to determine the point of view from which 
I consider the publication of the drawings you were kind enough to present to me, both as useful and desirable 
in a high degree. These happy conceptions, displaying at once fine talents and the inspiration of a deep love 
of nature, will possess an interest all the greater, inasmuch as they refer to countries which had not yet been 
visited by distinguished artists. Speaking generally, it is only within the last few years that any persons have 
devoted themselves with much interest to the representation of the great forms of the equatorial zone, and their 
varied groupings under their xed\ physiognoynical Your work is quite worthy of appearing at the side of 
those of your illustrious predecessors. 
Having lived for several years with my excellent friend M. Bonpland on the declivity of the great Cordillera 
de los Andes, and in the very same countries which you have visited, I must bear testimony to the admirable truth 
with which you have succeeded in representing not only the interior of the virgin forests, but also that alpine 
vegetation of the Cordilleras which offers an entirely different character. You have not contented yourself 
with seizing the type of the greater productions of the vegetable world by placing them in the foreground, but 
you have also represented their individuality and that curious interlacing of the roots above the soil, of which 
the forests of our temperate zone offer no example. The drawings of the passage of the Cordillera in the 
Paramo de Quindiu which you are going to publish, will give great interest to your work. The breadth of 
the chain interrupted by valleys and ravines is, so considerable, that not wishing to be carried in a little chair 
of Bamboo reeds on the backs of the natives, I required twenty-four days for my journey from the small town 
of Ibague to that of Cartago. I have found the highest point of this route, that of the division of the waters, 
to be at an elevation of 1798 toises (10788 Par. feet) above the level of the South Sea. It is the Garita del 
Paramo where we have encamped in a portable hut made of the large leaves of the Marantaceag, and is almost 
600 feet higher than the summit of Etna. In a much more southerly passage of the Cordilleras, at the 
Paramo del Assuay (S. Lat. 2°|:) between the towns of Alausi and Cuenca, I have found the highest point of the 
route at the Ladera de Cadlud at an elevation of 2428 toises (14568 Par. feet), which is nearly the height of 
the summit of Mont Blanc. The Paramo de Quindiu presents the very extraordinary phenomenon of a group 
of Palm-trees which may be classed amongst the alpine plants. To this group belongs the Wax-palm 
{Ceroxylon Andicola), the Palmito del Amifral {Oreodoxa frigida) and the Cana de la Vihora {Kunihia 
montana). Whilst the family of the Palm-trees generally only vegetates in the tropics in a zone where the 
mean temperature of the air is from 22“ to 24“ of the centigrade thermometer, and is not found on the declivity 
of the Cordillera at a greater elevation than 2000 or 2500 feet, the alpine Palm-trees which we have just 
mentioned are first found at Quindiu (with a northern latitude of 4°26' to 4°34') at an elevation of 6000 feet 
with a superior limit of 9000 feet. This is a region which in this zone is still 5100 feet from the inferior 
limit of perpetual snow, and in which, according to my observations, the thermometer often falls in the night 
to 4°, 8 and to 6 above the freezing point. To you, my dear Sir, belongs the great merit of having been the 
first to represent the physiognomical traits of the Wax-palm, whose majestic and slender form, according to the 
stems which I ordered to be cut down, attains a height of 160 to 180 feet. The drawings in which you have 
represented these Palm-trees are the most graceful ornament of your work. 
The association of the Wax-palm with the Coniferm (the yewtree-leaved Podocarpus) and the Oaks 
{Quercus Granadensis, similar to our northern Oaks) forms as remarkable a contrast as the mixture of Palm-trees 
