34 MR. J. BALL ON THE FLOEA 



quencj in the Peruvian Andes, or at least in the district visited 

 by me, is less easy to account for. So far as I know, it has 

 not been found on the coast, or in the lower valley of the 

 Eimac. Doubless many articles from the United States, as 

 well as provisions from the neighbourhood of Lima, were carried 

 up during the construction of the railway; but this does not 

 much help us to explain the appearance of the plant. If we 

 conjecture that seeds may have been carried in hay from Chili 

 for the use of the Chilian force stationed at Cliicla, it is scarcely 

 conceivable that in a siugle year the plant could have spread 

 as it has done, ascending steep rocky slopes inaccessible to 

 horses. 



Trop^olum tubekosum, Buiz Sf Fav. About the Pueiite 

 Infernillo, 11,000 feet! Chicla! One of the ornaments of the 

 Andean flora ; formerly cultivated by the Indians. 



Baleisia veettgillata, Cav. Kimac valley aboveMatucana; 

 flowering in May. ColL B. Ward. 



OxALis FiLiFORMis, H. B. K. Chicla ! 



A 



OxALTS PUBESCENS, H. B. K., \tiV. glabra ? I found this Oxalis 

 near Chicla, and also near the Puente Infernillo, about 11,000 

 feet above the sea ! The latter is a larger plant, with erect 

 stems branchiug fi-om the base ; but except in being quite 

 glabrous, I observe no characters by which to distinguish them 

 from O. inibescems But the South-American sj)ecies of Oxalis 

 are extremely embarrassing to the systematic botanist, very many 

 species having been described of which specimens are not to be 

 found in the chief European herbaria. The group with fleshy 

 stems and leaves, to which O. piihescens belongs, is the more diffi- 

 cult that in drying the plant falls to pieces, as I found to be the 

 case both with this aiid the following species. 



OxALTS ? Common in the crevices of rocks about Chicla! 



I have seen nothing in herbaria that seems to be nearly allied to 

 this plant, but am unwilling to describe it as new. The rather 

 large golden flowers are solitary, on short peduncles, which, like 

 the leaves, spring from the crown of the thick fleshy root (or 

 rhizome), which extends deep into the crevices of the rocks. 



