LIMITS OF SPECIK8 
175 
of Pinos, in the same plains. We also find pines in the 
south-eastern part of the island of Cuba, on the declivity 
of the Copper Mountains, where the soil is barren and 
sandy. The interior table-land of Mexico is covered witli 
the same species of coniferous plants ; at least the specimens 
Drought by M. Bonpland and myself from Acaguisotla, 
Jfevado de Toluca, and Cofre de Perote, do not appear 
to differ specifically from the Pinus occidentalis of the West 
India Islands, described by Schwartz. Now those pines 
which we see at sea level in the island of Cuba, in 20“ and 
22° of latitude, and which belong only to the southern part 
of that island, do not descend on the Mexican continent 
between the parallels of 17^" and 19^°, below the elevation 
of 500 toises. I even observed that, on the road from 
Perote to Xalapa, in the eastern mountains opposite to the 
Inland of Cuba, the limit of the pines is 935 toises ; while 
tn the western mountains, between Chilpanzingo and Aea- 
Puleo, near Quasiniquilapa, two degrees further south, it is 
^80 toises, and perhaps on some points, 450. These ano- 
malies of stations are very rare in the torrid zone, and are 
probably less connected with the temperature than with the 
nature of the soil. In the system of the migration of plants. 
We must suppose that the Pinus occidentalis of Cuba came 
from Yucatan before the opening of the channel between 
Pape Catoche and Cape San Antonio, and not from the 
Cnited States, so rich in coniferous plants ; for in Florida 
^be species of which we have here traced the botanical 
Seography, has not been discovered. 
About the end of April, M. Bonpland and myself, having 
Completed the observations we proposed to make at the 
Northern extremity of the torrid zone, were on the point of 
proceeding to Vera Cruz with the squadron of Admiral 
-^riztizabal ; but being misled by false intelligence re- 
®pecting the expedition of Captain Baudin, we were induced 
relinquish the project of passing thi’ough Mexico on our 
to the Philippine Islands. The public journals 
‘Enounced that two French sloops, the “ G-eographe ” and 
he “ Naturaliste,” had sailed for Cape Horn; that they 
Were to proceed along the coasts of Chili and Peru, and 
‘hence to New Holland. This intelligence revived in my 
mind all the projects I had formed during my stay in Paris, 
