

AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 53 



soil corresponds to the inclination, as though the continent had been formed by some 

 great flow of waters depositing bowlders and rocks near the mountains, then dis- 

 tricts of pebbles and water-worn stones, then coarse gravels and sands, and lastly 

 the finer sands and clayey deposits which cover the great alluvial plains, and which 

 are evidently the debris of the crystalline rocks of the mighty range of the Andes 

 leveled and sorted by the action of water. The surface of all this vast area is cov- 

 ered by the richest of succulent grasses, but normally it is without a tree or a 

 ligneous plant. It is a magnificent pasture ground, but its flora is poor and monot- 

 onous. It is remarkable that a soil on which timber grows so luxuriantly when 

 planted should from time immemorial be so totally destitute of forests. The only 

 exception is that in the sierras of Tandil, 200 miles south of Buenos Ayres, there is 

 a region of dense brushwood called carmamoel (Colletia cruciaia), which grows about 

 the height of a man, and which has no leaves, but is covered with sharp thorns in 

 the shape of a cross. And another exception consists in a strip of woods which 

 extends from the latitude of Buenos Ayers down along the Atlantic coast composed 

 principally of good-sized trees of the tola coronillo and espinillo, which are used for_ 

 various economical purposes. As a proof that the soil of the pampas is perfectly 

 adapted to arboreous vegetation, I would mention that in various parts there are 

 now extensive belts of cultivated timber, among which is the peach tree, which pro- 

 duces both fruit and fuel; also several species of the Eucalypins, the Robinia, the 

 Paradise tree, and the Lombardy poplar, all of which grow with facility and rapidly, 

 and are used not only for shade but for many economical purposes. There is one tree 

 indigenous to the pampas which I should mention from its singular character. I 

 refer to omber ( Percunia divica). At a distance it is one of the most attractive objects. 

 It grows to immense proportions, with gnarled roots and knots projecting up and 

 around the trunk in all manner of fantastic shapes, and affords a wide-spreading 

 shade of dark velvety leaves, a most refreshing resort for the siesta of a weary trav- 

 eler; but for the rest it is utterly worthless. Its wood is really not ligneous, having 

 neither fiber nor consistency, and resembling punk or a sponge more than anything 

 else. These trees, if trees they may be called, do not grow in forests, but only singly 

 and isolated, here and there at long intervals, being landmarks on the far horizon 

 sentinels, as it were, of the pampa. 



THE TREES OF THE EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ARGENTINE ANDES. 



Where the pampas approach the western mountains, all along the outlying slopes 

 of the Cordilleras of the Andes, but distinct and isolated from them, and extending 

 northward to the confines of Bolivia, there is a formation partly composed of open 

 forests and partly of shrubs and ligneous plants, which the scientists have designa- 

 ted by the name of the Mont6 formation. It embraces a great part of the western 

 slopes of the seven Andine provinces, to wit, Mendoza, San Luis, San Juan, Rioja, 

 Catamarca, Jujuy, and Salta. Prof. Groesback, in his celebrated work, the "Vege- 

 tation of the Earth," calls it the " Chaiiar Steppe," from the arborets of that name 

 which are so generally distributed through it. The trees which constitute this 

 formation consist principally of species of prosopis, mimosa, and acacia. They are at 

 first found in rather diminutive forms, and bristle with scattered branches provided 

 with thorns or thorny leaves, but as you reach the higher elevations, where the 

 "Puna formation" proper is found, the extended plains and broad valleys are 

 thickly wooded with immense specimens of the same type of trees, growing far up 

 on the mountain sides. In some parts, and especially in the sierras of San Luis and 

 Cordova, these forests are so beautiful and picturesque in their arrangement that 

 they look like artificial parks. 



Among the most noted of the trees which characterize these everchanging land- 

 scapes is the algarrobo (Prosopis alba), specific gravity 0.740. The size of this species 

 varies, according to locality, from mere bushes to quite lofty trees, branching, how- 

 ever, at a short distance above the ground, with thin tops of feathered leaves. 



