Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/136

 *[Footnote: (81°.5 and 86°, Fahr.); rarely ascending so high as 1900 English feet on the declivities of the Andes: but in the mountain palms to which I have alluded, the beautiful Wax-palm (Ceroxylon andicola), the Palmeto of Azufral at the Pass of Quindiu (Oreodoxa frigida), and the reed-like Kunthia montana (Caña de la Vibora) of Pasto, attain elevations between 6400 and 9600 English feet above the level of the sea, where the thermometer often sinks at night as low as 4°.8 and 6° of Reaumur (42°.8 and 45.°5, Fahr.), and the mean temperature scarcely amounts to 11° Reaumur, or 56°.8 Fahrenheit. These Alpine Palms grow among Nut trees, yew-leaved species of Podocarpus and Oaks (Quercus granatensis). I have determined by exact barometrical measurement the upper and lower limits of the range of the Wax-Palm. We first began to find it on the eastern declivity of Andes of Quindiu, at the height of 7440 (about 7930 English) feet above the level of the sea, and it extended upwards as far as the Garita del Paramo and los Volcancitos, or to 9100 (almost 9700 English) feet: several years after my departure from the country the distinguished botanist Don Jose Caldas, who had been long our companion amidst the mountains of New Granada, and who afterwards fell a victim to Spanish party hatred, found three species of palms growing in the Paramo de Guanacos very near the limits of perpetual snow; therefore probably at an elevation of more than 13000 (13855 English) feet. (Semanario de Santa Fé de Bogotá, 1809, No. 21, p, 163.) Even beyond the tropics, in the latitude of 28° North, the Chamærops mar-*]*