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being greater, cultivation. is confined to the -vallies, where 
there is water to irrigate the land. 
The northern provinces present a very barren aspect. 
From the river Chuapa to .Coquimbo, there are few trees; 
though shrubs are still tolerably abundant, and many beautiful 
plants with annual stems are common in the rainy season ; 
but there is no cultivation whatever, except in the vallies 
where the soil can be irrigated. The Carbon (your Cordia 
decandra) is almost the only tree that abounds; its wood 
is exceedingly hard and heavy, and in the absence of coal, 
well adapted for the purpose to which it is applied, the 
smelting of copper ore. Near the river Chuapa, there is 
another tree which affords fuel for the same purpose, called 
Tulguea ; but it is not the plant known by the same name 
in the south of Chili, (Zrevoa quinquenervia,) which is 
described in your Botanical Miscellany, from Dr. Gillies’ 
specimens, Various species of Cacti, which are only seen 
occasionally in the south, become exceedingly common in — 
these provinces, and scarcely any other plants are found in 
the dreary country between Coquimbo and the valley of 
Guasco, and from thence to Copiapo. In the interior, the 
hills consist of immense masses of rock, frequently altogether 
destitute of soil; but they are covered with, I may almost 
"Us forests of Cacti, for some of the columnar species, throw- 
ing out a great number of branches, grow to the height of 
thirty or forty feet, and are so abundant, that the withered - 
stems supply fuel for lining all the P smelted in ne 
mining districts. 
Beyond Copiapo, the country, retaining the same moun: 
tainous character, is a. complete desert, which continues 
along the whole coast of Peru, to the mouth of the Guaya- 
quil river, interrupted only by the vallies, which are from 
SIX to twenty or thirty leagues apart. Where the country 
is low, it is occupied by large tracts of sand whereon a few : 
patches of Tillandsie are sometimes met with, the last genus 
of plants, perhaps, that a Botanist would expect to find where 
neither a tree nor shrub is to be seen. These, and a few 
stunted Cacti compose the Flora of the hills on the coast 
