48 
banks I saw for the first time the Chafiar tree (Gourliea Chilen- 
sis, Clos.), a sturdy close-branched, somewhat spiny shrub, which’ 
at the time of my visit was loaded with its bright yellow flowers. 
This shrub yields a toothsome fruit something like a plum, that 
is greatly relished by man and beast. It is often dried and car- 
ried as food upon journeys. I saw old stones lying under the — 
trees which had been gnawed into by desert rats, which are ex- 
travagantly fond of the kernel. Here, too, was a gigantic fum- 
_ cus, its numerous thorn-pointed stalks ten feet in height and 
spreading in all directions like chevaux de frise. It required 
considerable courage to thrust the hand among these spears in 
search of specimens. 
Out upon the open sands I came upon a flora different from 
any previously collected. Here I began to meet with the Ades- 
mias which are so numerous on the Pacific coast. Philippi enu- 
merates 134 species that occur in Chile alone. More than a 
dozen of them have been discovered in the Atacama Desert. In 
this locality likewise flourishes Eritrichium guaphaloides, DC., 
which the inhabitants of the province of Copiapo call Te del burro 
or Ze del campo, and of which they make an infusion and drink 
like Chinese tea. The Acacia Cavenia and Lycium Chilense 
stand like lonely sentinels upon the desert. Many other things 
rare and interesting greeted me in my wanderings over this re- 
gion, but they cannot be noticed here. Of course the cosmo- 
politan plants, which go wherever man goes, were here to nod 
their familiar forms in my face. Sonchus oleraceus, Solanum 
nigrum, Erigeron Canadense, Argemone Mexicana, Raphanus 
sativus, Erodium cicutarium, Gnaphalium purpureum, and half a 
dozen other old friends were there to make me feel at home in 
this strange and distant land. 
I was pretty well fagged out with my day’s tramp when I 
heard the puffing of the train on its way back from Copiapo. My 
good friend, the engineer, was kind enough to respond to the 
waving of my handkerchief by stopping the cars and giving me a 
snug seat in the locomotive. Of my three rides none proved 
more enjoyable or botanically more profitable than the one on 
the iron horse to Monte Amargo, 
