Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 1 | Page 7

GRENADA, QUITO, AND PERU, AND ON THE BANKS OF THE
RIO NEGRO, THE ORINOCO, AND THE RIVER AMAZON.
M. Bonpland has in this work given figures of more than forty new
genera of plants of the torrid zone, classed according to their natural
families. The methodical descriptions of the species are both in French
and Latin, and are accompanied by observations on the medicinal
properties of the plants, their use in the arts, and the climate of the
countries in which they are found.
1.I.3. MONOGRAPHY OF THE MELASTOMA, RHEXIA, AND
OTHER GENERA OF THIS ORDER OF PLANTS.
Comprising upwards of a hundred and fifty species of melastomaceae,
which we collected during the course of our expeditions, and which
form one of the most beautiful ornaments of tropical vegetation. M.
Bonpland has added the plants of the same family, which, among many
other rich stores of natural history, M. Richard collected in his
interesting expedition to the Antilles and French Guiana, and the
descriptions of which he has communicated to us.
1.I.4. ESSAY ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS,
ACCOMPANIED BY A PHYSICAL TABLE OF THE
EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS, FOUNDED ON MEASURES TAKEN
FROM THE TENTH DEGREE OF NORTHERN TO THE TENTH
DEGREE OF SOUTHERN LATITUDE.
I have endeavoured to collect in one point of view the whole of the
physical phenomena of that part of the New Continent comprised
within the limits of the torrid zone from the level of the Pacific to the

highest summit of the Andes; namely, the vegetation, the animals, the
geological relations, the cultivation of the soil, the temperature of the
air, the limit of perpetual snow, the chemical constitution of the
atmosphere, its electrical intensity, its barometrical pressure, the
decrement of gravitation, the intensity of the azure colour of the sky,
the diminution of light during its passage through the successive strata
of the air, the horizontal refractions, and the heat of boiling water at
different heights. Fourteen scales, disposed side by side with a profile
of the Andes, indicate the modifications to which these phenomena are
subject from the influence of the elevation of the soil above the level of
the sea. Each group of plants is placed at the height which nature has
assigned to it, and we may follow the prodigious variety of their forms
from the region of the palms and arborescent ferns to those of the
johannesia (chuquiraga, Juss.), the gramineous plants, and lichens.
These regions form the natural divisions of the vegetable empire; and
as perpetual snow is found in each climate at a determinate height, so,
in like manner, the febrifuge species of the quinquina (cinchona) have
their fixed limits, which I have marked in the botanical chart belonging
to this essay.
1.I.5. OBSERVATIONS ON ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE
ANATOMY.
I have comprised in this work the history of the condor; experiments on
the electrical action of the gymnotus; a treatise on the larynx of the
crocodiles, the quadrumani, and birds of the tropics; the description of
several new species of reptiles, fishes, birds, monkeys, and other
mammalia but little known. M. Cuvier has enriched this work with a
very comprehensive treatise on the axolotl of the lake of Mexico, and
on the genera of the Protei. That naturalist has also recognized two new
species of mastodons and an elephant among the fossil bones of
quadrupeds which we brought from North and South America. For the
description of the insects collected by M. Bonpland we are indebted to
M. Latreille, whose labours have so much contributed to the progress
of entomology in our times. The second volume of this work contains
figures of the Mexican, Peruvian, and Aturian skulls, which we have
deposited in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, and respecting
which Blumenbach has published observations in the 'Decas quinta
Craniorum diversarum gentium.'

1.I.6. POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN,
WITH A PHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL ATLAS, FOUNDED
ON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS AND
TRIGONOMETRICAL AND BAROMETRICAL
MEASUREMENTS.
This work, based on numerous official memoirs, presents, in six
divisions, considerations on the extent and natural appearance of
Mexico, on the population, on the manners of the inhabitants, their
ancient civilization, and the political division of their territory. It
embraces also the agriculture, the mineral riches, the manufactures, the
commerce, the finances, and the military defence of that vast country.
In treating these different subjects I have endeavoured to consider them
under a general point of view; I have drawn a parallel not only between
New Spain, the other Spanish colonies, and the United States of North
America, but also between New Spain and the possessions of the
English in Asia; I have compared the agriculture of the countries
situated in the torrid zone with that of the temperate climates; and I
have examined the quantity of colonial produce necessary to