Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Identity Of Forms Indicates An Analogy Of Climate; But In
Similar Climates The Species May Be Singularly Diversified.
The charming rhododendron of the Andes (the befaria) was first
described by M. Mutis, who observed it near Pamplona and Santa Fe
de Bogota, in the fourth and seventh degree of north latitude.
It
was so little known before our expedition to the Silla, that it was
scarcely to be found in any herbal in Europe. The learned editors
of the Flora of Peru had even described it under another name, that
of acunna. In the same manner as the rhododendrons of Lapland,
Caucasus, and the Alps* (* Rhododendron lapponicum, R. caucasicum,
R. ferrugineum, and R. hirsutum.) differ from each other, the two
species of befaria we brought from the Silla* (* Befaria glauca, B.
ledifolia.) are also specifically different from that of Santa Fe
and Bogota.* (* Befaria aestuans, and B. resinosa.) Near the
equator the rhododendrons of the Andes (Particularly B. aestuans of
Mutis, and two new species of the southern hemisphere, which we
have described under the name of B. coarctata, and B. grandiflora.)
cover the mountains as far as the highest paramos, at sixteen and
seventeen hundred toises of elevation. Advancing northward, on the
Silla de Caracas, we find them much lower, a little below one
thousand toises. The befaria recently discovered in Florida, in
latitude 30 degrees, grows even on hills of small elevation. Thus
in a space of six hundred leagues in latitude, these shrubs descend
towards the plains in proportion as their distance from the equator
augments.
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