144 Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 



the Scotchman immediately afterwards on the solitary road and mur- 

 dered him for his trifle of wages, which he had earned by working 

 as a bricklayer at the fortifications of Tandil. So much for the safety 

 of travelling here ! 



During my ten days' stay I lost no opportunity of riding and tra- 

 velling through the neighbourhood to the distance of thirty miles in 

 circumference ; yet I did not meet with a single new specimen, ex- 

 cept a dwarf Juncus and a Rumecc, with a creeping insignificant grass 

 of the country. 



I visited the principal Estancea of a Colonel Alsega, who keeps an 

 English gardener, but the garden contains nothing more than pump- 

 kins, onions, maize, some good cabbage, lettuce, and turnips, with 

 capsicums and cucumbers : these are the principal produce of the best 

 gardens of this country, with the addition perhaps of a few sweet 

 potatoes, melons, and water-melons in their season. This place is 

 called Juncus Grandes from a lagune west of it, where that species 

 grows very strong. The gardener is more active with his gun than 

 with his spade ; and this fine sheet of water gives him full employ- 

 ment in shooting ducks, geese, swans, and flamingos, with several 

 kinds of land animals, as three species of armadillos, foxes, deer, &c. 

 &c. The latter are seen running over these vast plains unclaimed 

 and little disturbed, though several hundreds may be met with in a 

 day. 



This Englishman had promised to preserve me a few rare birds 

 of this place for stuffing. After searching every bog and cave of this 

 neighbourhood, I did not see a single new plant except a dwarf Ru- 

 mex, and a minute anonymous plant plentiful on the shores of LaPerta. 

 In rich moist pastures near this place I saw fields of the Dipsacus 

 fullonum. 



26th. I left the Estancea of Mr. Methuen, who was so kind as to 

 accompany me with his own horses and peons as a guide to the 

 Serras, distant twenty-four leagues from his house. The top of the 

 highest of them could be descried on a clear evening rising above 

 the horizon to the height of apparently six or seven feet. Though 

 the whole of this district is as flat as a bowling-green, yet the sight 

 terminates at the distance of from four to five miles : beyond this, 

 every object is lost sight of. It is strange, that though the country 

 is frequently a plain open field, and though the atmosphere is un- 

 clouded, neither house, cattle, nor tree is to be seen, although at no 

 great distance. 



This day's ride was very uninteresting : great part it of lay through 

 vast tracks of strong coarse grasses as high as our horses. Fortu- 



