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banks I saw for the first time the Chanar tree {Gotirliea Chilen- 

 sis, Clos.), a sturdy close-branched, somewhat spiny shrub, which 

 at the time of my visit was loaded with its bright yellow flowers. 

 This shrub yields a toothsome fruit something like a plum, that 

 is greatly relished by man and beast. It is often dried and car- 

 ried as food upon journeys. I saw old stones lying under the 

 trees which had been gnawed into by desert rats, which are ex- 

 travagantly fond of the kernel. Here, too, was a gigantic Jicn- 

 ciis, its numerous thorn-pointed stalks ten feet in height and 

 spreading in all directions like chevaux de frise. It required 

 considerable courage to thrust the hand among these spears in 

 search of specimens. 



Out upon the open sands I came upon a flora different from 

 any previously collected. Here I began to meet with the Ades- 

 inias which are so numerous on the Pacific coast. Philippi enu- 

 merates 134 species that occur in Chile alone. More than a 

 dozen of them have been discovered in the Atacama Desert. In 

 this locality likewise flourishes Eritrichuim giiaphaloides, DC, 

 which the inhabitants of the province of Copiapo call Te del burro 

 or Te del campo, and of which they make an infusion and drink 

 like Chinese tea. The Acacia Cavenia and Lyciiun Chilense 

 stand like lonely sentinels upon the desert. Many other things 

 rare and interesting greeted me in my wanderings over this re- 

 gion, but they cannot be noticed here. Of course the cosmo- 

 politan plants, which go wherever man goes, were here to nod 

 their familiar forms in my face. Sonchiis oleraceiis, Solamim 

 nigrjiin, Erigeron Canadense, Argemone Mexicana, Raphaniis 

 sativus, Erodium ciciitariiim, Gnaphalmm purpureum, and half a 

 dozen other old friends were there to make me feel at home in 

 this strange and distant land. 



I was pretty well fagged out with my day's tramp when I 

 heard the puffing of the train on its way back from Copiapo. My 

 good friend, the engineer, was kind enough to respond to the 

 waving of my handkerchief by stopping the cars and giving me a 

 snug seat in the locomotive. Of my three rides none proved 

 more enjoyable or botanically more profitable than the one on 

 the iron horse to Monte Amargo. 



