Letters of Mr. J. Graham Kerr. 365 



Buenos Aires City, 



Sunday, Nov. 16, 1889. 



I took my departure from Mate Grande rather suddenly 

 two days ago, so have had to postpone continuing your letter 

 till now. When I arrived at Mate Grande (Aug. 15th) it was 

 practically mid-winter, everything was parched and withered, 

 and the only plants in flower in the camp were a beautiful 

 little yellow oxalis, which carpeted the turf almost like 

 the buttercups at home, and that ubiquitous intruder, Stel- 

 laria media. The latter grows rather more luxuriantly than 

 at home, but otherwise appears to be quite unchanged. This 

 state of vegetation continued until nearly the middle of Oc- 

 tober, about which time we had two or three heavy thunder- 

 storms. This, coupled with a little warm weather, gave an 

 extraordinary impulse to growths, and vegetation sprung up 

 and grew as if by magic. The first of the noticeable 

 flowers to bloom in the spring were two verbenas, one 

 pelargonium scarlet and another lilac-coloured. The turf, 

 dotted with these and the little yellow oxalis, quite vied in 

 appearance with the meadows at home in spring. Besides 

 this yellow oxalis, there soon appeared two other species of 

 the same genus, one with a beautiful pink flower, the other pure 

 white. The biscacheras appeared to be characterized by their 

 growth of poisonous and otherwise disagreeable plants. Some 

 would be covered by a dense growth of tall hemlock, others 

 by a forest of mottle-leaved thistles ; on others, again, Urtica 

 uteris flourished, while on very many was to be seen a beauti- 

 ful apparently Loasaceous plant, with drooping white-petalled 

 flowers, and armed with an abundance of stinging hairs, even 

 on the petals. Although flowering plants were very numer- 

 ous as to individuals, in species they were very few. There 

 appeared to be a very great absence of rare plants. Of 

 everything that was to be seen at all, there was to be seen 

 an abundance. Of ordinary ferns I did not find any, but a 

 species of Marsilia, and one Azolla, were frequent. 



