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Show ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 327 as a form exclusively characteristic of theN ew Continent; and yet the American tapir ha been found as it were repeated in that of M:alacca (Tapirus indicus, Cuv.) _ Although the species of Cactus belong, generally speaking, more properly to the tropical regions, yet some are indigenous in the temperate zone, as on the l\fissouri and in Louisiana, Cactus missuriensis and C. vi vi para; and Back saw with astonishment the shores of Rainy Lake, in north lat. 48° 40', covered with C. opuntia. South of the Equator, the species of Cactus do not extend beyond the Rio Itata, in lat. 36°1 and the Rio Biobio, in lat. 37° 15'. In the part of the Andes which is situated between the tropics, I have seen species of Cactus (C. sepium, C. chlorocarpus, C. bonplandii) growing on elevated plains nine or ten thousand (French) feet (about 9590 and 10,660 English) above the level of the sea; but a still more alpine character is shown in latitudes belonging to the temperate zone, in Chili, by the Opuntia ovallei, which has yellow flowers and a creeping stem. The upper and lower limits beyond which this plant does not extend have been accurately determined by barometric measurement by the learned botanist Claude Gay : it has never been found lower than 6330 French (6746 English) feet, and it reaches and even passes the limits of perpetual snow, having been found on uncovered masses of rock rising from amongst the snows. The last small plants were collected on spots situated 12,820 French (13,663 English) feet above the level of the sea. (Claudio Gay, Flora Chilensis, 1848, p. 30_) Some species of Echino-cactus are also true alpine plants in Chili. A counterpart to the fine-haired Cactus senilis is found in the thick-wooled Cereus lanatus, called by the natives Piscol, which has handsome red fruit. We found it in Peru, near Guancabamba, when on our journey to the Amazons River. The dimensions of the different kinds of Cactacere (a group on which the Prince of Salm-Dyck has been the first to throw great light) offer great variety and contrasts. Echinocactus wislizeni, which is 4 feet high and 7 feet in circumference ( 4 feet 3 inches and 7 feet 5 inches English), is still only the third in size, being surpassed by E. Lingens (Zucc.) and by E. platyceras (Lem. ). (Wislizenus, Tour to Northern Mexico, 1848, p. 97.) The Echinocactus stainesii reaches from 2 to 2! feet diameter; E. visnago, from |