Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 145 



nately our path was, through most of the way, marked out by an old 

 road track ; much of the grass was of the kind which is called Pocho 

 bianco, having long white spikes at the head of the flower stems, 

 from four to eight feet in height. At night we came to the Estancea 

 of Leon Biga, a wealthy cattle-farmer, who being a friend of Mr. Me- 

 thuen,* supplied us with the best that his house contained; with 

 plenty of wine and music, which made the night pass more pleasantly 

 than lying upon a hard hide for eight or nine hours. 



27th. A pleasant clear morning, and my favourite sight, the moun- 

 tains, in view, (a reminiscence of home to me, after passing years in 

 a monotonous plain !) distant only about six leagues : we struck 

 across the trackless plains towards the nearest of them, which are a 

 line of dry rocky knolls, lying east and west. The village or Guardea 

 lay in the centre, and at about six miles' distance from the spot where 

 we left the horses and climbed the hill on foot. There we found a 

 strange contrast with our former travelling, where not a stone above 

 the size of a pea was to be seen ; whilst here we might almost have 

 been tempted to imagine that the whole Pampas had been cleared of 

 stones to supply this place. The Serras are a tract of low hills and 

 knolls lying sometimes at a mile distant from each other. The prin- 

 cipal line runs east and west, but detached from each other like loose 

 stones thrown into heaps of 300 to 400 feet in height, consisting of 

 no solid rock, but blocks of grey granite. The herbage varies little 

 from that of the Pampas : not a tree or shrub was to be seen. The 

 only few plants which I found were three species of Cactus ; three of 

 a procumbent slender Mimosa, of which two only were in flower ; 

 (Enothera undulata, with large fine-scented blossoms, the root leaves 

 long, narrow, and much undulated ; a species of Nierenbergia, which is 

 a beautiful dwarf shrubby-like plant with large white flowers, slightly 

 streaked with blue veins ; a Gnaphalium, with thyme-like leaves ; and 

 two Ferns : these were the only strangers to be met with at this sea- 

 son. The most interesting plant here is a yellow or straw-coloured 

 Cynanchum, flowering during the greater part of the year : on a dry 

 night, when the wind, sweeping over the hills towards the village, 

 passes over this plant, it comes laden with a most delicious scent. 

 We stopped in the village or Guardea only three days ; our lodging 

 being in the house of an American Pulperaro. Here I met a Scotch 

 gardener who cultivates a piece of ground on which he raises vege- 

 tables for the soldiers. He told me that he came from the county 

 of Fife, where he was a fellow-workman with Mr. Drummond : he 

 also met Drummond again on his arrival in the States, and travelled 

 with him there for some time. He seems to be acquainted with a few 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 1.— No. 2. April 1838. l 



