most of the fruits and vegetables of the northern temperate zone. Wheat does not form a head below 4500 ft., nor ripen above 10,500. The larger forest trees are rarely seen above 10,000 ft., and even there only on the outer slopes of the Cordilleras. The _Escallonia myrtalloides_, however, is found at an elevation of 13,000 ft., and the shrubby _Befarias_ 400 or 500 ft. higher. A characteristic growth of the open plateau and upland valleys is the cabulla, cabaya or maguey (_Agave americana_), whose fibre is much used by the natives in the manufacture of cordage, sandals (_alpargatas_) and other useful articles. In the treeless region lying between 11,600 and 13,800, or in other places between 12,000 and 14,000 ft., the similarity of the vegetation to that of the corresponding European region, according to Wagner, is especially striking. On the _paramos_ of Chimborazo, Pichincha, Iliniza, &c., the relation of characteristic genera to those identical with genera in the Alpine flora of Europe is as 5 to 4; and the botanist might almost suppose himself in the Upper Engadine. Of the flora of the highest Andes, Whymper found 42 species, of various orders, above 16,000 ft., almost all of which were from Antisana and Chimborazo; 12 genera of mosses were found above 15,000 ft., and 59 species of flowering plants above 14,000 ft., of which 35 species came from above 15,000 and 20 species from above 16,000 ft. The highest specimen obtained was a lichen (_Lecanora subfusca_, L.) on the south side of Chimborazo, 18,400 ft. above sea-level. Mosses (_Grimmia_) were found on Chimborazo at 16,660 ft., ferns (_Polypodium pycnolepis_, Kze.) at 14,900, and specimens of _Gentiana rupicola_, H. B. K., _Achyrophorus quitensis_, Sz. Bip., _Culcitium nivale_, H. B. K., at 16,300; _Phyllactis inconspicua_, Wedd., at 16,600, _Astragalus geminiflorus_, H. B. K., at 14-15,000, _Geranium diffusum_, H. B. K., at 16,000, _Malvastrum phyllanthos_, Asa Gray, at 16,500, _Draba obovata_, Benth., at 16,660, and _Ranunculus praemorsus_, Kth., at 16,500--all on Chimborazo. _Fuchsia loxensis_, H. B. K., was found on the slope of Sara-Urcu at 12,779 ft., and currant bushes (_Ribes glandulosum_, R. & P.), on Chimborazo, at 14,000. On the eastern slopes of the Andes, where the rainfall is continuous throughout the year and the atmosphere is surcharged with moisture, the forest growth is phenomenal. It is similar to that of the Colombian and Peruvian _montanas_, modified, if at all, by the excessive humidity which prevails in this region.