NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



profit whatever was made on this branch of the estab- 

 lishment. There was no pretence of philanthropy, but 

 simply the intelligent view that as a mere matter of 

 business it answered best that the working men should 

 feel themselves to be well off. In point of fact, the 

 mere threat to discharge a man from his employment 

 is usually found to be sufficient to maintain order and 

 industry. 



There was little time available for botanizing here, 

 and, the ground being all under cultivation, little of 

 any interest to be found. On the way back I secured 

 one of the beautiful reeds {Gyneriiiiji) which abound 

 in tropical America. Herbarium specimens give little 

 idea of a grass which, in moist situations, is from 

 twenty to twenty-five feet in height, and whose flower- 

 ing panicle is from four to five feet long. 



On the following day, April 28, Mr. Nation again 

 acted as my guide in a short walk about the out- 

 skirts of the city on the south and south-west sides. 

 Nothing could be more uninviting than the appear- 

 ance of the ground, which consists of volcanic sand, 

 in most places completely bare of vegetation, but 

 strewn with the refuse of the city, skeletons of cattle, 

 and all sorts of rejectamenta, which make it the 

 favourite resort of the black gallinazo {Cathartes 

 atratas), the universal scavenger in this part of South 

 America. The bird is deservedly protected by the 

 population, which probably owes to its activity pro- 

 tection from pestilence. On the banks of some 

 ditches and drains, and on some patches of waste land 

 moistened by infiltration, we found several interesting 

 plants. It was not evidence of the good character of 



