Chap. VI. FLORA OF THE COUNTRY. 95 



in the Plaza, dating from 1757, has an elaborately carved 

 front and two towers. In another plaza is the college, a 

 large building with an upper story, also built by General 

 Deustua ; and both these public squares have bronze foun- 

 tains erected by the Government of General Echenique, the 

 late President, besides drinking fountains in the corners of 

 several of the streets. The water is excellent. 



Puno is surrounded by heights covered with patches of 

 potatoes, barley, and quiuoa {Chenopodium quinoa), the huts of 

 Indians being interspersed amongst them ; and immediately 

 over the town there is an isolated rocky ridge of carboniferous 

 limestone perforated by several natural caverns, called the 

 Huassa-pata, The shores of the lake are a few hundred 

 yards from the town, and at the little port there are always a 

 number of balsas, made of large bundles of reeds tied together, 

 with a reed sail.^ The view to seaward is, however, confined 

 by the peninsula of Capachica, and two islands at the mouth 

 of the bay of Puno. A canal to enable balsas to come up 

 nearer the town was made by the Spanish Intendente 

 Gonzalez Montoya in the beginning of the present century.*^ 



The flora of a country which, though within the tropics, is 

 at an elevation of nearly thirteen thousand feet above the 

 sea, must necessarily be meagre, and the few plants are lowly 

 and inconspicuous. I noticed the following in the immediate 

 vicinity of Puno. The only tree was one of stunted growth, 

 with a pretty pink and white flower, and dark-green leaves, 

 almost white underneath, called "oliva silvestre" by the 

 Spaniards, and ccolli in Quichua (Buddlea coriacea) ; and of 

 these there were not more than a dozen, sheltered behind 



* M. de Castelnau says that vessels \ terinined man, and abolished the nnVas, 

 exactly resembling those of lake Titi- | or drafting of Indians for forced labour 



caca are represented on tlie tomb of 

 Rameses III. at Thebes. 



^ Gonzalez Montoya was the best 

 Governor that Puno Jias ever known. | cumplo."' 

 He was a benevolent as well as a de 



in the mines of Potosi. When ordered 

 by the Government to restore the 

 milas, he replied, " Obedesco pero no 



