2^0 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Vegetable Sheep of Peru. 



A very curious plant growing in Peru 

 is known by the natives as "Yareta" or 

 "vegetable sheep." 



"The plant grows abundantly among 

 rocks at high altitudes along the Andes 

 of Bolivia and Peru, where it constitutes 

 a conspicuous feature in the landscape 

 because of its peculiar manner of growth 

 in developing the so-called 'polster' or 

 cushion formation. Similar compact 

 masses of plant growth are frequently 

 found on high mountains, as well as in 

 arctic and antarctic regions." 



The size and general appearance of 

 this big plant are shown in the illustra- 

 tions borrowed from the "Missouri 

 Botanical Garden Bulletin." Plate i 



being made from a photograph taken by 

 Professor Bailey on Mount Chachani, 

 near Arequipa, at an elevation of fully 

 17,000 feet above sea-level. 



"It forms hillocks or small mounds 

 often becoming three feet high and some- 

 times several feet in diameter. More- 

 over, the entire mound is made up of a 

 single plant, not of a colony of individ- 

 uals, and it attains this enormous size 

 and extreme compactness by a process 

 of repeated branching (Plate 2), so that 

 the ultimate branches are closely crowded 

 and the outer surface is continuous 

 (Plate 2). The flowers of the Yareta 

 are very tiny, only about two millimeters, 

 or less than one-eighth of an inch long, 

 and are borne in small sessile, axillary, 

 involucrate clusters near the tips of the 





''0 



TWO MOUNDS OF YARETA GROWING ON MT. CHACHAXI, NEAR AREQUIPA, PERU. 



