45 



Acacias, not yet leaved-out, was a bright red, delicate Tropceo- 

 him, — 7! chymocarpum {T. pentaphyllum, L.), and on the edges 

 of the same thicket, in a ditch was Tradescantia GuyanensiSy bear- 

 ing deh"cate white flowers. The only native shrub which I found 

 in bloom was Cestnim Parqidy some two or three feet in height, 

 with light yellow tubular flowers, a member of the Order Solan- 



Oddly enough, this shrub has a fancy for growing upon the 

 roofs and projecting walls of old houses in the city. Nearly all 

 the buildings here are square structures, one or two stories in 

 height, made of brick or stucco, with flat roofs, of the type so 

 common In Spanish and Italian cities. Yo the tiles or along the 

 coping and roof gutters of many of these, you may see a whole 

 wild garden clinging. Besides the Cestriim^ which thrusts itself 

 out horizontally over the sidewalk, I noticed various grasses, 

 SoficJms, Geraiihuns, Oxalis, Dandelion, Shepherd's-purse, Ceras- 

 tium, and various other herbaceous plants. 



In wet grounds I came across a strange thing named Hy^ne- 

 rant hits Yaborosa {H. hit egri folia, L.), which has a long white 

 corolla tube, vvith five spreading segments, the included stamens 

 and stigma just fining the throat, around which were sprinkled 

 honey glands for the delectation of visiting insects. This plant 

 bears a long white root which runs just under the surface of the 

 ground, and throws up at intervals single leaves and scapes in the 

 manner of our Aralia midicaulis. It belongs to the Order So- 

 lanaceae. Some of the lowland pastures are densely covered with a 

 bright blue, yellow-eyed Sisyrznc/iium, called by Grisebach (Symb. 

 ad. Fl. Arg.), 5. Bonariense? The Sisyrinckitirns of this part 

 of South America are very numerous, and as yet poorly defined. 

 The same may be said of the Solanums, of which I saw several 

 species, among them 5. 7iigrtim, van, S. spinossissimtmi, S, 

 ba^rhaavcEfoliiint, S. sisymbriifolium (so I thought it), and a 

 species brought from the Grand Chaco territory, probably 

 undescribed. The plant that I shall be likely to remember 

 the longest is a nettle, very common here in waste grounds, 

 which on first sight I took to be Urtica dioica or U. gracilis, and 

 which I boldly grasped as I had so often done at home. It 

 proved, however, to be a much more formidable species, armed 



