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mentions the brilliant scarlet Verbenas and the daisy-like flowers, 
in his description of the country around Maldonado, a region to 
the eastward of Montevideo, I wished to see the Oméu trees 
which he describes as so characteristic of the Pampas, and the 
thistles which grow to such an enormous size as to afford hiding- 
places for robbers. All of these I saw during our stay at Monte- 
video, and I was able to make almost a complete collection of the 
spring plants and trees of the region, nearly all of which were 
determined for me by Don José Arechavaleta, of Montevideo, 
who has in his possession the Gibert collection of Montevidean 
plants. I am also greatly indebted to this gentleman for several 
delightful botanical excursions to the interior of the country in 
the province of Comelones, and for his kindness in allowing me 
access to his herbarium. : 
I wish to remark here, that although Montevideo has many 
excellent bookstores, in which I found the works of nearly all 
the modern writers on natural science, I failed to discover a single 
book which treated of the natural history of the Banda Oriental 
or of South America, except translations in French and Spanish 
of Darwin’s Journal. I was informed by a gentleman in Monte- 
video that the accuracy with which this work describes the coun- 
try is remarkable, and I found that nearly every well-educated 
man whom I[ met was familiar with it. 
The only thing which I could find bearing upon the botany 
the region was a catalogue of the Gibert collection of plants in 
the Kew Herbarium, a copy of which was kindly given me by 
Mr. Arechavaleta. This gentleman informed me that no manual 
of the Uruguayan flora has ever been published, and that, in 
fact, certain genera and even families of plants of the region have 
not yet been worked up. Among them are the Bromeliacee, 
the Orchidacez, the many species of Plantago, Oxalis and of 
Sisyrinchium. He has been paying special attention for a num- 
ber of years to the Composite, has collected and described 
many fresh-water alge, and is now engaged in working up the 
Graminez. 
In the immediate vicinity of Montevideo I noticed many © 
hedges of Agave, cactus and a species of dwarf Pandanus, en- — 
_closing fresh-looking vegetable gardens and orchards of quinces, — 
