NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 43 



are situated — from the spring to the autumnal equinox, the ground 

 during that time is dry and bare. On first entering the Bay of 

 Valparaiso, and looking at the treeless, rounded, earth-coloured 

 hills, I 'wondered that people ever built a city there. It did not 

 seem at all, as its name implies, a Valley of Paradise. When at 

 length I again returned to this country, nothing surprised and 

 pleased me so much as the uniYersal covering of green, and I felt 

 that grass would never again be to me a common thing. A curious 

 fact connected with the reappearance of herbaceous vegetation at 

 the beginning of the rainy season, is that the green haze which 

 overspreads the ground after the first shower is caused by the 

 germination of countless numbers of the seeds of Stork's Bill — 

 Er odium cicntarium and E. moschatum — plants believed, with good 

 reason, to have been accidentally introduced from Europe. 



Again, the Chilian Elora includes certain tropical or sub-tropical 

 plants, such as canes, palms, and the cacti, which arrest the atten- 

 tion of people from colder countries. I was much pleased when I 

 first saw seed on a cane plant — Chusquea: it w r as just like ryegrass 

 seed. There is only one species of palm on the mainland, Jubaea 

 spectabilis, or Micrococos chilensis, which attains a great height, 

 and has a bulging trunk three feet in diameter. It is not so 

 graceful as many of its kind, but to one who has never seen a 

 palm, except in a conservatory, it is a beautiful, and even a won- 

 derful tree. The southern limit of palms in Chile is 34° S., and it 

 is worthy of remark that Valparaiso is situated very nearly in the 

 same latitude — 33° V 5 6". 



But it must not be supposed, from what I have just now said, that 

 the vegetation of Chile is of a tropical character. To support a 

 rank vegetation, both heat and moisture are necessary. In the 

 north, where the temperature is high, moisture is wanting; and in 

 the south, where moisture is abundant, the temperature is com- 

 paratively low. The central parts of the country have a climate 

 resembling that of Southern Europe. The mean winter tempera- 

 ture of Valparaiso is 51° Fah., that of summer 61°, and the mean 

 annual temperature 57°. The thermometer seldom rises above 80° 

 in the shade, and though the roofs on winter mornings are covered 

 with hoar-frost, I never saw ice. Of course, inland the variations 

 are greater. 



I will mention only only one other feature, but perhaps the most 

 remarkable of all. Nearly all the Chilian species are different from 



