THE PLANT WORI.D 33 



seacoast, plains, valleys, and snow-capped mountains — species are rela- 

 tively numerous ; individuals, nevertheless, are few. One misses the 

 meadows, woods, and roadsides with their luxuriant vegetation, and in- 

 stead wanders over hillsides covered with scattered bushes, finding here 

 a little red amaryllis, there a white lily and farther on a yellow calceo- 

 laria, a tiny composite, or one of the Umbelliferae, but a second speci- 

 men of the same species may not be found in an afternoon's botanizing. 

 In the mountains it is somewhat better, for near the rivers and brooks 

 the vegetation is more abundant, with here and there a level, swampy 

 tract crowded with species of Hydrocotyle, Ranunculus, Portulaca, 

 mustards, grasses, sedges, and rushes and shaded by the magnolia, 

 Drimys Winter ii. 



On the dry mountain sides are cacti, some tall and columnar, others 

 low and globular, but all to be avoided. There is also \)i\& puya, one of 

 the Bromeliaceae, with yard-long leaves edged with sharp, curved teeth, 

 and a stout stalk five or six feet high bearing a great bunch of blue- 

 green blossoms. 



One finds with these some curious Compositae — some shrubby, others 

 climbing, often bilabiate, with brilliant heads of deep red or yellow 

 flowers ; large clumps of calceolarias, red, yellow, orange, or mottled ; 

 with occasionally a small quillai tree, or a litie, an ally both in family and 

 properties of the poison sumac. 



The timber line is not sharply defined, as trees and large bushes are so 

 scattered, but when one reaches the narrow-leaved Kageneckia, one of 

 the Rosaceae, it means the limit of tree growth. Here is often found 

 clumps of a low bush with inflated, triangular pods, a representative of 

 the maple family, and also tufts of thorny Umbelliferae, dwarf Com- 

 positae, delicate little red or yellow oxalis, and here and there a beautiful 

 pink or red amaryllis, with several small blossoms, and sometimes also a 

 species with one large flower on a naked stalk. 



A very noticeable order cultivated in the United States, native here, 

 is the Tropaeolaceae, the nasturtium family. It consists of one genus 

 with numerous species, all attractive plants, some very showy. The 

 Myrtaceae includes several trees and shrubs, all aromatic, with large 

 clusters of white flowers. 



The Loranthaceae comprise a number of very showy parasites . One leaf- 

 less species grows on the cactus and has large clusters of red flowers. It 

 is mistaken by the natives for cactus flowers. 



The only Gymnosperm of this region is one of the Gnetaceae 

 (^Ephedra Andina) , Q.n equisetum-like shrub ; in the south however are 

 araucarias and cj'^press. 



The Compositae are very abundant and nearly one-third are bilabiate. 



A very interesting genus is Calandrinia, of which some one hundred 



