204 MB. J. BALL ON THE FLOBA OF NOBTH PATAGONIA 



in the chapter treating of the Vegetation of the Argentine ter- 

 ritory, was forced, when attempting to give an account of the 

 Patagonian flora, to rely altogether upon information supplied 

 by two settlers, MM. Heusser and Claraz, who were not botanists, 

 and were therefore unable to identify with species known to 

 science most of the plants referred to by them under local names. 

 I have therefore thought it desirable to prepare a list of the 

 species received from M. Claraz, as a contribution to the existing 

 scanty materials towards a knowledge of the Patagonian flora, 

 adding a few preliminary remarks on its general characteristics. 



The political boundaries of Patagonia have been altered at 

 various times ; but we may safely assign as its natural physical 

 limit to the north the valley of the Eio Colorado, which reaches 

 the Atlantic about fifty miles south of Bahia Blanca. In his 

 phyto-geographical map of the Argentine territory, Prof. Lorentz 

 included a tract north of that river extending to the Sauce, whose 

 estuary forms the port of Bahia Blanca ; while for political 

 purposes a considerable part of the country lying between the 

 rivers Colorado and Negro has been annexed to the province of 

 Buenos Ayres. Three considerable rivers carry the drainage of 

 the Cordillera to the Atlantic across Patagonia, but receive only 

 few and inconsiderable affluents — the Bio Colorado, forming 

 the northern boundary, flowing S.E. and having its mouth about 

 40° S. lat. ; the Bio Negro, uniting two considerable branches 

 which between them drain the eastern face of the Araucanian 

 Cordillera for a distance of fully 200 miles, and flowing E.S.E. 

 into the Atlantic about 41° S. ; and the Chubat, flowing a little 

 S. of E. to its mouth about 43|° S. The Chubat may be looked 

 upon as the boundary between North and South Patagonia, 

 dividing it into two territories of nearly equal extent. Of these 

 the northern has been partially, though imperfectly, explored ; 

 and annually receives a gradually increasing number of European 

 eolonists ; while Southern Patagonia, in spite of the remarkable 

 journey of Lieutenant Musters, continues to be one of the least- 

 known portions of the earth, and, excluding the northern shores 

 of the Magellan Strait which are subject to quite different 

 physical conditions, contains in a territory as large as Spain but 

 one petty trading-port— that of Santa Cruz, about lat. 50° S. ; 

 while the indigenous Indian population, estimated by Musters at 

 3000, is believed to be now reduced to less than half that number. 

 Speaking in general terms, Patagonia may be said to consist of 



