It is remarkable, that of this majestic form of plants—the Palms—some of which rise to more than twice the height of the Royal Palace at Berlin, and which the Indian, Amarasinha, has very characteristically called “kings among grasses,”—only fifteen species had been described up to the time of the death of Linnæus. The Peruvian travellers, Ruiz and Pavon, added only eight; whilst Bonpland and myself, traversing a greater extent of country, from 12° south lat. to 21° north lat., described twenty new species, and distinguished as many more which we named, without however being able to procure their blossoms in a perfect state.[NV] At present (forty-four years after my return from Mexico) more than 440 species of palms, from both continents, have already been scientifically described, including the East Indian species arranged by Griffith. The “Enumeratio Plantarum” of my friend Kunth, which appeared in 1841, contains no fewer than 356 species. The very few palms belonging, like our Coniferæ, Quercineæ, and Betulineæ, to social plants, are the Mauritian Palm (_Mauritia flexuosa_), and the two species of Chamærops, of which the Chamærops humilis covers whole tracts of land at the estuary of the Ebro and in Valencia, while the other, Chamærops Mocini, which we discovered on the Mexican shore of the Pacific, is entirely without prickles. In the same manner as there are some species of palms, including Cocos and Chamærops, which are peculiar to sea-coasts, so also is there a certain group of Alpine palms belonging to the region of the tropics, which, if I mistake not, was wholly unknown before my South American journey. Almost all these species of the palm family grow in plains and in a mean temperature of 81°.5 and 86° Fahr., seldom advancing higher up the sides of the Andes than to 1900 feet. The beautiful wax palm (_Ceroxylon andicola_), the Palmetto of Azufral at the Pass of Quindiu, (_Oreodoxa frigida_), and the reed-like Kunthia montana (_Caña de la Vibora_) of Pasto, all flourish at elevations varying from 6400 to 9600 feet above the level of the sea, where the thermometer frequently sinks in the night to 42°.8 and 45°.5 Fahr., and the mean temperature is scarcely 57° Fahr. These Alpine palms are interspersed with nut-trees, yew-leaved species of Podocarpus, and oaks, (_Quercus granatensis_). I have determined, by accurate barometric measurements, the upper and lower limits of the wax palm. We began to observe it first on the eastern declivity of the Cordilleras of Quindiu, at an elevation of 7929 feet, from whence it ascended to the Garita del Paramo, and Los Volcancitos, as high as about 9700 feet. The distinguished botanist, Don José Caldas, who was long our companion in the mountains of New Granada, and who fell a victim to Spanish party hatred, found, many years after my departure from the country, three species of palms in the Paramo de Guanacos, in