CHILIAN TREES. i75 



the herbaceous vegetation utterly dried up. A great 

 part of the day was nevertheless very well spent in 

 rambling over the hill above the baths, and making 

 closer acquaintance with many vegetable forms alto- 

 gether new, or hitherto seen only from a distance. 

 The trees and shrubs of this region are with scarce 

 an exception evergreen, and the most conspicuous, 

 though differing much from each other in structure 

 and affmities, bear a striking resemblance in the 

 general form and character of their foliage, formed of 

 thickset, broadly elliptical, leathery leaves, giving a 

 dense shade impervious to the sun. The largest is 

 the peunw* tree, already referred to, which forms a 

 thick trunk, but rarely exceeds thirty feet in height. 

 Next to this in dimensions are two trees of the 

 Rosaceous family, allied in essential characters (though 

 very different in appearance) to the Spiraeas, of which 

 the common meadowsweet is the most familiar ex- 

 ample. One of these, the Quiilaja saponaria of 

 botanists, is much prized for the remarkable properties 

 of the bark, said to contain, along with carbonate of 

 lime and other mineral constituents, much saponine, 

 an organic compound having many of the properties 

 of soap. It is commonly used for washing linen, 

 and especially for cleansing woollen garments, to 

 which it gives an agreeable lustre. Nearly allied to 

 this is the Kageneckia oblonga, a small tree of no 



* Molina, one of the most pernicious blunderers who have brought 

 confusion into natural history, grouped together under the generic name 

 Peumus several Chilian plants having no natural connection with each 

 other. Misled by his erroneous description, botanists have applied the 

 name peuimis to a fragrant shrub, common about Valparaiso and else- 

 where, which is knov/n in the country by the name boldti. 



