*
[footnote] *Near Baracoa and Cayos de Moya. See the Admiral's journal of
the 25th and 27th of November, 1492, and Humboldt, 'Examen Critique de
l'Hist. de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent', t. ii., p. 252, and 5. iii.,
p. 23. Columbus, who invariably paid the most remarkable attention to all
natural objects, was the first to observe the difference between
'Podocarpus' and 'Pinus'. "I find," said he, "en la tierra aspera del Cibao
pinos que no Ilevan pinas (fir cones), pero portal orden compuestos por
naturaleza, que (los frutos) parecen azeytunas del Axarafe de Sevilla." The
great botanist, Richard, when he published his excellent Memoir on Cycadeae
and Coniferae, little imagined that before the time of L'Heritier, and even
before the end of the fifteenth century, a navigator had separated
'Podocarpus' from the Abietineae.
Christopher Columbus, in his first voyage of discovery, saw Coniferae and
palms growing together on the northeastern extremity of the island of Cuba,
likewise within the tropics, and scarcely above the level of the sea. This
acute observer, whom nothing escaped, mentions the fact in his journal as a
remarkable circumstance, and his friend Anghiera, the secretary of Frdinand
the Catholic, remarks with astonishment "that 'palmeta' and 'pineta' are
found associated together in the newly-discovered land.
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