OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES. H 



presence of four species of CrassiiJacece, of which three aj)pcar to 

 be now. The order Is very sparingly represented in South America, 

 and, so far as I know, no species of true Sedum has been previ- 

 ously recorded. 



The figures in the foregoing list sliow a total number of 178 

 species collected in the temperate zone, and only 46 in the alpine 

 zone ; but they suffice, in my opinion, to prove that the flora of 

 the western slope of the Peruvian Andes, and especially that of 

 the temperate zone, is by no means so poor as has been hitherto 

 supposed. It will be seen that after excluding the species intro- 

 duced by man, and those subsequently found by Mr. Ward, I was 

 able to collect 53 species by jumping from the train during very 

 short halts between the levels of 7800 and 11,000 feet, and tliat 

 13G species were found in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 village of Chicla. The flora of the alpine region doubtless gave 

 me the impression of poverty ; but it must be remembered that 

 the 46 species enumerated were all found within a very restricted 

 area, presenting little variety of surface or exposition, and I am 

 not sure that under similar disadvantages other high mountain 

 regions would give a better harvest. 



It is not easy to find published data for comparison. The 

 results obtained in a district that has been fully examined by 

 botanists having time for the purpose are, of course, misleading; 

 while in short excursions one usually attends mainly to the new 

 or rarer species, and overlooks the common and widely spread 

 forms. The only materials I have found that in some degree 

 admit of comparison with the results of my excursion to Chicla, 

 are contained in the appendix to Hooker and Ball's ^ Marocco and 

 the Great Atlas.' In the valleys of Ait Mesan and Amsmiz we 

 collected specimens of all, even the commonest species; and in 

 the accompanying table the distribution of each, between a middle 

 zone extending from the level of 1200 metres to that of 2000 m., 

 and a superior zone reaching from 2000 to about 3500 metres, is 

 exhibited. These zones correspond fairly well with what I have 

 here distinguished as the temperate and alpine zones in the 

 Andes, but the circumstances were in many ways different. In 

 Alt Mesan we spent the greater part of six days ; a much larger 

 extent of ground was traversed, and in great part carefully ex- 

 amined by two botanists. Our collections there gave a total of 

 385 species of j)hanerogams and ferns, of which 283 species were 

 found in the middle zone, and 154 in the superior zone, 52 species 



