Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 143 



spinosa, an annual, in the marshes of the Laguna Clara; and a creeping 

 syngenesious white-flowering perennial, very conspicuous amongst 

 the black herbage of the Santolina formerly mentioned. 



At dark we arrived at the Pancho of a friend of Mr. Methuen, 

 where we got a good supper of fowl stewed with pumpkins, a soft food 

 without the addition of bread. There are no mile-stones in this 

 country ; but we calculated that we had ridden this day sixty-three 

 miles, with only one change of horses, through fine dry plains and 

 with pleasant weather. The landlord of the house where we stopped 

 was absent in search of his whole flock of sheep, 300 in number, 

 which had been stolen the previous night. On my return I called 

 again, and found that he had regained them, and had sent the thieves, 

 two men and a boy, to the prison of Buenos Ayres. 



16th. The morning was thick, foggy, and cold. I sucked two or 

 three mattas for breakfast, and afterwards rode about two leagues 

 through a dry trackless plain, and entered a great marsh said to be 

 ninety miles in length, and varying from two to eight-mi] es in breadth, 

 called Barreado cle Bessino. Its herbage was tall Junci and coarse 

 species of Car ex, so tall that a flock of cattle is lost sight of in it : it 

 has a brown and dried appearance. At a spot which we passed, two 

 miles and a half in breadth, though the season was dry, our horses 

 were frequently up to the belly in mud : this marsh is valuable for 

 the breed of the " Coypou ? (Myopotamus)" thousands of whose skins 

 are sent from this country to Liverpool annually. 



At mid-day we arrived at the Estancea of a Buenos Ayres merchant, 

 called Laguna Robino, a beautiful seat on the borders of a fine lake, 

 covered with a great variety of water-fowl. Here they had attempted 

 to grow peaches, willows, and poplars ; but these were completely de- 

 stroyed by the sheep, which are more hurtful to plantations in this 

 country than horses are in Britain : now not a vestige of trees is to 

 be seen in this country. The fire wood of the people is a Solatium, a 

 suffruticose species of the marshes, which grows to the height of three 

 to six feet : in naming my seeds I called it Solatium glaucum. At dark 

 I arrived at the house of my guide, Mr. Methuen, where I stopped 

 for ten days ; in this day's journey I did not see a single new speci- 

 men. 



Between my going out and coming home, in the marsh which we 

 passed in the morning, two carts were attacked by a band of deserters, 

 and plundered, and the drivers were barbarously wounded. At a post- 

 house, where we changed horses in the afternoon, I met a man whom 

 I had seen in Buenos Ayres, a native of Peterhead, coming to Buenos 

 Ayres from Tandil, in company with a Creole. This Creole attacked 



