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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The Whole Of This Mountainous Country Is Covered
With Thick Vegetation.
We there found the same verdure as had
charmed us by its freshness in the mountains of Buenavista and Las
Lagunetas, wherever the ground rises as high as the region of the
clouds, and where the vapours of the sea have free access.
In the
plains, on the contrary, many trees are stripped of a part of their
leaves during the winter; and when we descend into the valley of
the Tuy, we are struck with the almost hibernal aspect of the
country. The dryness of the air is such that the hygrometer of
Deluc keeps day and night between 36 and 40 degrees. At a distance
from the river scarcely any huras or piper-trees extend their
foliage over thickets destitute of verdure. This seems owing to the
dryness of the air, which attains its maximum in the month of
February; and not, as the European planters assert, "to the seasons
of Spain, of which the empire extends as far as the torrid zone."
It is only plants transported from one hemisphere to the other,
which, in their organic functions, in the development of their
leaves and flowers, still retain their affinity to a distant
climate: faithful to their habits, they follow for a long time the
periodical changes of their native hemisphere. In the province of
Venezuela the trees stripped of their foliage begin to renew their
leaves nearly a month before the rainy season. It is probable, that
at this period the electrical equilibrium of the air is already
disturbed, and the atmosphere, although not yet clouded, becomes
gradually more humid.
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