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is dissipated on the coast. At the end of September, I 

 went from Lima to the valley of Lurin, six leagues to the 

 southward. For the last two leagues, the road lies over a 

 plain at the foot of the hills, which was completely covered 

 with Nolana prostrata and Palaviarhombifolio, in full blossom. 

 The day after my arrival at Lurin, the mist began to dis- 

 perse, and for the following week, the sun shone brightly 

 during a great part of the day. At the end of that time I 

 returned to Lima, and not a single flower then remained on 

 the plants, the whole of which were completely withered. I 

 revisited Lurin a few days afterwards, when there was not 

 a semblance of vegetable structure in their black and 

 shrivelled remains; and a stranger would have thought it 

 impossible, that, within a fortnight, the bare sandy soil could 

 have been carpeted with such a profusion of flowers. The 

 same effect was soon produced on the pasture in the hills; 

 the summer of the coast had commenced ; and when I left 

 the country on the 4tli of November, we heard that a heavy 

 fall of rain had announced the winter of the interior. 



In speaking of the climate of Chili, I omitted to allude to 

 one circumstance connected with the vegetation of its 

 mountains. At a medium elevation between the coast and 

 the higher ranges of the Cordillera, especially on table-land, 

 snow lies on the ground for some time after the rains have 

 ceased, and, melting gradually at the beginning of summer, 

 the soil continues moist, and vegetation is in full vigour in 

 such situations, when every plant has withered in the neigh- 

 bouring vallies. Some of the most beautiful productions of 

 Chili, and those least known, occur on the hills thus situated. 



From the peculiarities of climate in the various districts, 

 both of Peru and Chili, the greater part of the indigenous 

 plants flourish at a season, and under circumstances, pecu- 

 liarly favourable to their cultivation in Britain, and other 

 parts of the north of Europe. Most of them flower, not 

 during the heat of summer, but in the winter or spring 

 of the year, when the average temperature is certainly not 



