Fes. 1910.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 69 
so greatly in its different parts. As I spent only a few 
months in Chile in the year 1908, all that I can hope to 
give you is a slight impression of the general condi- 
tions of the country as a whole, and a slight sketch of the 
flora of the few places visited by one who has little 
botanical knowledge, and takes but an amateur interest in 
the great subject of botany. 
Chile is a country with a wonderfully varied flora, as will 
be readily understood when the following conditions are 
borne in mind. The country stretches from north to south, 
a distance of 2700 miles, from the arid deserts about Tacna 
(lat. 18° S.) to Cape Horn, with its snow and ice, about 
lat. 56° S. The country, whose width varies from 100 to 
250 miles, may be regarded as the western slope of the 
Andes; so that, on the whole, one ascends on proceeding 
inland. In addition to this, the rainfall decreases continu- 
ously from south to north in association with a gradual 
change in the direction of the prevailing winds, opposite in 
character to the direction of the hands of a clock. Thus in 
the south the prevailing wind is westerly and the annual 
rainfall is very great. Further north the prevailing wind 
is found to be south-westerly, with a diminished rainfall : 
while in the extreme north the wind blows always from 
the land, and rain hardly ever falls. 
Latitude. Dene estins: a 
| | re 
_ Tierra del Fuego L F | 52-557 S. 49° F area | 
Ancud (Island of a ; 42° 53° F. 130 ins. | 
| Valparaiso . 33° 59° F. 10-20 ins. | 
| Iquique | 20° 64° F {eae 
In the desert of Atacama, in the north, the temperature 
may fall from 100° F. in the day to 36° F. at night. At 
certain times of the year in Valparaiso a sudden drop of 
30° of temperature is often experienced at sunset. One 
cannot move in any direction in Chile and remain in the 
same conditions with regard to temperature, altitude, or 
rainfall. Consequently, a small change in one’s position 
