IN VARIOUS PAKTS OF THE (JI.OBK. 181 



have been expected, when it is remembered that I was 

 several thousand feet liigher than I had as yet been. The 

 forests wl)ich clothe the lower part of the mountain contain 

 nothing particular ; several frutescent Nightshades and a Podo- 

 carpus were the most worthy of notice. Where the vegetation 

 is lower I found many Berberis and an Ephedra ; then several 

 genera of Heathworts ( Vaccinium, Gaultheria, Andromeda), 

 purple-flowered Oxalis, and a beautiful species of Escallonia ; 

 lastly, quite on the top of the mountain, which I did not reach 

 till sunset, I gathered a creeping Alchemilla (A. aphanoides), 

 which makes a sort of turf mixed here and there with tufts of 

 Luzula; this point was 4000 j^ards above the level of the sea. 

 Soon after the ridge of the mountain is crossed, the forests re- 

 appear and extend to within a league and a half of Pomabaraba, 

 at the end of a plain and on a river of the same name, or 

 rather on the Rio Parabiti, the upper portion of which is known 

 by the name of the Rio Pomabamba. A beautiful plant adorns 

 the nearly barren mountains to the S.W. of the town ; it is an 

 arborescent Bromeliad {Pourretia jjijramidata ?) : its stunted 

 and divided trunk terminates in one or more immense rosettes of 

 leaves, stiff as those of the Yucca, and from the centre of which 

 spring spikes half a yard long of azure blue flowers, elevated 

 on foot stalks some 3 or 4 feet in length. In low damp places is 

 found a Gmmera, the subacid fleshy petioles of which are eaten 

 by the natives like Rhubarb, which it somewhat resembles. 

 Pomabamba is 2600 yards above the sea, and its mean tempera- 

 ture is 14° C. ; here I saw corn for the first time since I left 

 Europe ; for although it is to be found in several places in 

 Brazil, especially on the table-land of Minas Geraes, I had not 

 come through that country, and so I missed it. 



To reach tlie Pllcomayo, which is not above 12 leagues from 

 Pomabamba, I had to cross a country as high as that I liad just 

 traversed, and I again enriched my collections. The clayey 

 schists, constituting the greater part of the soil, have a dis- 

 ordered aspect, which one is at first sight inclined to attribute to 

 a process of boiling which this substance might have undergone 

 at the moment of changing from the liquid to the solid state. 

 The plants which I here met with had a still more Alpine look 

 than those I had left behind me ; I found Plantains, Rushes, 

 Mallow-worts, and stemless Amaranths, Valerian worts, and in 

 particular a beautiful Cranesbill (^Hypseocliaris pimpinellcpfolia, 

 Rem.), the greatest ornament of the pastures of Tomina. The 

 muddy waters of the Pilcomayo roll in a bed 150 yards wide, and 

 2500 yards below these interesting localities. I soon descended 

 into the torrid zone, and, thanks to the skill of my guides, passed 



