THE SOUTH TEMPERATE ZONE 3o7 



Paraguay tea, or mate*, is abundant in tin's region and collected 



in great quantities. 



The Paraguay river is subject to greal floods, and the low count ry 

 is then inundated so that the land adjacent to the river becomes 

 an immense swamp. 



South of Brazil and Paraguay, and east of the Andes lies the 

 great plain of Argentina, the pampas, covering thousands of 

 miles with a sea of grass, like the North American prairies. As in 

 North America, the western portions of these plains are arid and 

 broken, and sparsely covered with bunch-grasses, interspersed 

 with tufts of dry thorny shrubs and Cacti, much like the deserts of 

 Arizona and southern California. Salt pans, where the barren 

 ground is covered with a film of white alkali are also reminiscent of 

 our own southwest. 



The pampa proper extends from Uruguay to the Rio Colorado 

 near the northern boundary of Patagonia. The general aspect of 

 the pampas must be much like the plains of the central United 

 States. The grasses are mostly bunch-grasses belonging to several 

 genera — Stipa, Aristida, Andropogon, Paspalum, Panicum and 

 others, and these completely dominate the landscape. Where 

 water settles in the hollows of the rolling prairie, there may be a 

 continuous turf of finer grasses, and flowering herbs. Originally 

 great numbers of ostriches, guanacos, and many small rodents 

 inhabited these grass-lands; but with the coming of the white man. 

 these have become greatly reduced in numbers, and now t he pampas 

 furnish pasturage for vast herds of cattle and horses. With the 

 rapid settlement of the Argentine, vast areas have gone under the 

 plow, and the Argentine wheat and corn compete in world markets 

 with the grain of North America, Australia, India and Russia. 



As in all newly settled countries, plant immigrants have come, 

 and European weeds have invaded the cull ivated areas. Especially 

 notable is the cardoon-thistle (Cynara Carduncutus) which is said 

 to cover extensive tracts of country almost to the exclusion of 

 other vegetation. 



South America narrows rapidly southward and nowhere is tin 4 

 climate of the pronounced continental type found in most parts of 

 the northern hemisphere in corresponding latitude-, although 

 there is a marked difference between winter and summer. 



Buenos Aires, in about the same latitude as Los Angeles, has 



