Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/164

 *[Footnote: The more considerable the heights at which the Mexican Conifers are first met with, the more striking it appears to find in the Island of Cuba (where, indeed, on the borders of the torrid zone, northern breezes sometimes cool the atmosphere down to 6-1/2° Reaumur, 46°.6 Fah.), another species of pine (P. occidentalis of Swartz), growing in the plains or on the low hills of the Isla de Pinos, intermixed with palms and mahogany trees (Swietenias). Columbus mentions a small pine wood (Pinal) in the journal of his first voyage (Diario del 25 de Nov. 1492), near Cayo de Moya, on the north-east of the Island of Cuba. In Hayti also, Pinus occidentalis descends from the mountains to the sea-shore, near Cape Samana. The trunks of these Pines, carried by the Gulf-stream to the Islands of Graciosa and Fayal in the Azores, were among the chief indications from which the great discoverer inferred the existence of unknown lands to the west. (See my Examen crit., T. ii. p. 246-259.) Is it true that in Jamaica, notwithstanding the height of its mountains, Pinus occidentalis is entirely wanting? We may also ask what is the species of Pinus found on the eastern coast of Guatimala, as P. tenuifolia (Benth.) probably belongs only to the mountains near Chinanta?

If we cast a general glance on the species which form the upper limits of arborescent vegetation in the northern hemisphere, from the frigid zone to the equator, we find, beginning with Lapland, that according to Wahlenberg, on the Sulitelma Mountain (lat. 68°) it is not needle-trees which form the upper limit, but that birches (Betula alba) extend much higher up than Pinus sylvestris;—whilst in the tem-*]*