1:2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



south, the annual rainfall is over 100 inches, in the north it is 

 reduced to a shower or two in the year. 



As might be anticipated, the vegetation is very varied. In 

 Britain we have of flowering plants and ferns about 1600 

 species, but the Flora of Chile, as represented by the collec- 

 tion in the Santiago Museum, contains 4013 species, belonging 

 to 747 genera, and 140 natural orders. Feuille, Molina, and 

 Miers have each described a number of species, but we are in- 

 debted to Claude Gay, a Frenchman, for the first Chilian Flora. 

 In 1834, when Mr. Darwin visited Chile in the Beagle, Gay was 

 collecting specimens in all branches of Natural History. He 

 spent twelve years in the country and then took his collections to 

 Paris, where, with the help of other scientific men, he brought out 

 in 1845 his "Historia de Chile," in 27 volumes, 8 of which are 

 devoted to Botany. Though almost necessarily incomplete and 

 inaccurate, it is a very valuable work, and will serve as a basis 

 for all future Chilian Floras. Dr. B. A. Philippe, the able and 

 zealous Professor of Natural History in the University of Chile, 

 Santiago, has done more than any other man, except Gay, to 

 extend our knowledge of Chilian vegetation. Not only has he 

 made large collections himself, but for many years he has named 

 and described all the new plants found by his friends, so that the 

 number of known species is constantly increasing, and in 1872 I 

 saw a manuscript catalogue, drawn up by Dr. Philippe and his 

 sons, of all the native species known up to that date. 



I will now mention what seem to me the most remarkable 

 features of the Chilian Flora. In October, 1864, after a voyage 

 of 100 days, during which time we had seen no plants but floating 

 seaweed, we neared the shores of Chile, a few miles to the south 

 of Valparaiso. Taking a glass and looking at the hill-sides, I saw 

 they were covered with vegetation, but of a kind new to me. It 

 was neither forest nor pasture, but short bushy vegetation. I 

 found afterwards that there were trees also, but the abundance of 

 bushes is a remarkable feature in the landscape. After living 

 in the country for some time, I saw that these bushes were 

 evergreen, but at a later date I found, in the vicinity of Val- 

 paraiso, two deciduous woody plants, one an acacia, the other a 

 fuchsia. 



Another feature, much more marked, is the want of grass. As 

 there is no rain in Central Chile — in which Santiago and Valparaiso 



