PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND BOTANY OS CHILI. 109 



collecting is concerned, gone during the summer unless he makes 

 a journey to the rainy south. 



If it were not for the irrigation of the land, no crops would 

 grow here ; but through that means the land here produces 

 excellent crops. About two leagues to the north-east of the city 

 commences a large track of land unprovided with streams, and 

 which, when I last saw it, was stocked with about one starving 

 cow per square mile ; but this is a strong contrast with all other 

 parts of the district. The only plant that resists the drought here 

 is the Acacia cavenia, about one stunted bush per acre being 

 visible towards autumn. After the winter rains everything is 

 green — even the dry stony cordilleras of the coast are covered with 

 innumerable flowers — so that a journey by railroad from Santiago 

 to Valparaiso is delightful. A little hill near this city bears from 

 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the spring, — but the 

 spring once passed, the only resort away from dry specimens, 

 dusty roads, and drier if not dustier books, is to be found in some 

 of the mountain valleys situated about a day's ride, or say 50 

 miles, from the city. There, under the shade of a Quillay, 

 f Quillaja sapo7iariaJ or Maiten, fMaytenus ehilensisj one can camp 

 out and botanize, insectize, or moralise, profitably; and, thanks to 

 the numerous holidays observed in these countries, frequently. 



These two trees are nearly the only indigenous species of any 

 size in the Andes in this province. The Quillaja is decreasing 

 rapidly, as its bark is in great demand for washing wool, &c. No 

 indigenous tree grows in the plains here or to the north, but the 

 hills a little to the south have'some fine patches of forest. 



Soon after my arrival here I was'astonished and delighted to 

 find nearly a square mile of Robles {Fagus sp. ?) within some 70 

 miles of Santiago, high up on a crest of the coast range. Why 

 that patch of forest exists I cannot explain. All around was 

 baked hard and dry as a rock by the sun. Away from the shade 

 of the trees no plants except a few bulbous and tuberous species 

 were to be found. Insects in the form of hard-shelled 

 Heteromerous Coleoptera or a few Carabici only were to be seen, 



