134 THE PI.ANT WORLD 



cut before maturity and used for fodder, and the potatoes are small and 

 poor in quality. The kenoa, a species of Chenopodium, varies from a 

 small plant without branches and only ten or twelve inches high to a 

 great branching weed-like thing three or four feet tall. It becomes 

 bright red at maturity and a large specimen doubtless produces half a 

 pint or more of seed. The seed is cooked and eaten much the same as 

 rice, but requires more care, as the first water in which it is boiled should 

 be drained off. When thoroughly cooked the spirally coiled embryo 

 becomes separated from the endosperm and gives the dish an odd appear- 

 ance. At best it is quite inferior to any of the cereals as a food. 



No native trees or bushes of any size were observed about the shores, 

 and wood for building purposes and fuel is very scarce. In the shallower 

 parts of the lake a tall rush much like Scirpiis lacustris is abundant and 

 out of this the Indians make a very neat, boat-shaped raft called balsa, 

 with sail also of rushes, which they use in navigating the smaller arms 

 and bays, rarely going more than three or four miles from shore however. 

 They also use this boat in netting and spearing fish and in pulling up 

 from the lake bottom water plants which they feed to cattle picketed 

 out along the shore. This rather unusual fodder consists largely of a 

 species of Myriophylbim and a somewhat grass-like plant, possibly a 

 Potamogeton , mixed with Char a and a green filamentous alga. The 

 cattle eat these things doubtless from necessity rather than choice, but 

 the rush above mentioned they will wade far out into the water to obtain, 

 so that when feeding little more than their backs and heads are visible. 



The city of La Paz is in a great gulch some 1,000 feet lower than 

 Lake Titicaca and about twice that distance below the surrounding 

 plateau. The Ezica/yptus is the commonest tree in cultivation, several 

 fine groves standing out conspicuously as one looks down upon the town. 

 Another much smaller tree in some of the gardens, with handsome 

 purplish flowers, is a Cantua, apparently of the species laxifolia. Tall, 

 branching, cylindrical jointed cactuses are common as a hedge plant 

 along various lanes, and in the lower part of the town a weeping willow 

 grows finely. 



From La Paz we went with mules to Sorata, the trail passing around 

 the northwest base of the Sorata range, over a pass some 14,000 feet 

 elevation and down quite rapidly 6,500 feet to the town of Sorata, which, 

 being 4,000 feet lower than La Paz, has a most agreeable climate the 

 year around. Here, as in the latter town. Eucalyptus trees were the most 

 conspicuous of any, but various other species were quite common, espec- 

 ially a black walnut, the fruit of which furnishes the Indians one of 

 their dyes. The mountain sides near town are well cultivated for prob- 

 ably a distance of 2,000 feet up, and when we were there, in early June, 

 thousands of acres of fine fields of Indian corn and bearded wheat were 



