lo8 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



if that be true in districts where peaks are separated 

 by arms of the sea or by intervals of low country 

 having a very different climate, the process must be 

 still easier in a chain so continuous as that of the 

 Andes. 



On the evening of the 24th I had the advantage of 

 meeting the representatives of nearly all the European 

 powers then present at Lima at the table of Don 



R. C , a native gentleman of large fortune and 



influential position. The entertainment might properly 

 be described as sumptuous, and, excepting in some 

 royal palaces, could not easily be matched in Europe. 

 One feature, indeed, was unique, and appealed to the 

 susceptibility of a botanist. The vases heaped with 

 choice specimens of tropical fruits could scarcely have 

 been seen out of Peru. The occasion was not one on 

 which political questions could with propriety be dis- 

 cussed, but I was struck by the complete agreement 

 amongst men of various nationalities, whose duty it 

 was to know the real state of things, as to the formid- 

 able prospect of anarchy and disorder that must ensue 

 whenever the Chilian forces should be withdrawn from 

 Lima and the adjoining provinces — a prospect, I need 

 scarcely add, that has been since fully realized. 



Soon after sunrise on the 25th Mr. Nation was 

 good enough to call for me. We had agreed to make 

 a short excursion along the bed of the Rimac, the 

 best, if not the only, ground near the city where one 

 can form some idea of the indigenous vegetation of 

 the low country. As happens elsewhere, the river has 

 carried down seeds or roots of many plants of the 

 valley, which find a home on its broad gravelly bed. 



