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Mendoza, at the eastern foot of the Andes, had made several 
excursions, on the one side, across the Cordilleras to the 
shores of the Pacific, and on the other, across the Pampas to 
the Atlantic, thus, as it were, connecting the botany of those 
remote and highly interesting regions. In his different 
journies, and in his excursions to the unfrequented heights of 
Uspallata, and to the still more unknown mountains of 
San Luis and Cordovas, Dr. Gillies carried with him a 
degree of scientific knowledge and a philosophical spirit of 
inquiry, such as have fallen to the lot of few travellers. 
Again, we find the collections we have received from Mr. 
Tweedie and the late Mr. Baird, from Buenos Ayres, the 
Uraguay, and a part of the Banda Orientale, so much allied 
to those of Dr. Gillies from the Pampas, that we should not 
do these individuals justice if we did not include their plants 
also. Mr. Baird, if we mistake not, went to Buenos Ayres 
as gardener to a Scottish agricultural establishment that had 
been formed there, and appears to have possessed a good 
deal of enterprise, to which we are perhaps indebted for the 
plants that he sent us. Of their exact locality we only know 
what may be learned by the following extract of a letter 
received from him, that bears date ** Buenos Ayres, July 1, 
1830. I undertook an expedition into the Missiones of 
Brazil, for the purpose of procuring the three following 
plants, the Yerva de Paraguay, commonly called Paraguay 
Tea, the Cedar (Araucaria Brasiliensis), and a plant which 
the natives call the Weeping Tree, and of which they aver that 
when touched, even on the warmest day of summer, it showers. 
down a fluid, similar to a shower-bath. I got to within 15 
leagues of the place where these plants grow, but want of 
water unfortunately compelled me to return. I brought 
home a good many plants, principally Air-plants, and a 
quantity of seeds. I saw also a beautiful tract of country, 
and was absent seven months, spending most of the time in 
open boats; but a great misfortune befel me in a. severe 
feverish attack, from which I suffered six weeks, and lost all 
my plants and specimens of birds, &c. that I had previously 
collected. My illness took place at St. Anna, a spot that 
