WINTER'S BARK. 147 



the sea on the previous morning, but light clouds 

 hung about the entire range during this day, and I 

 was unable to identify with certainty any of the 

 summits. The distance in an air line is about one 

 hundred English miles, and I was struck by the clear- 

 ness of the air in this region as compared with what I 

 had seen from the coast of Ecuador or Peru. Every 

 point that stood out from the clouds was seen sharply 

 defined, as one is accustomed to observe in favourable 

 weather in the Mediterranean region. 



Returning to the town, I took my way along one of 

 numerous deep ravines that have been cut into the 

 seaward surface of the plateau. Though they are 

 witnesses to the energetic action of water, they are 

 often completely dry at this season ; yet they exercise 

 a marked influence on the vegetation. The shrubs 

 rise nearly to the dimensions of trees, and several 

 species find a home that do not thrive in the open 

 country. I was specially interested in, for the first 

 time, finding in flower the Winter's bark {Drimys 

 W inter i), a shrub which displays an extraordinary 

 capacity of adaptation to varying physical conditions, 

 as it extends along the west side of America from 

 Mexico to the Straits of Magellan, and also to the 

 highlands of Guiana and Brazil, accommodating itself 

 as well to the perpetual spring of the equatorial 

 mountain zone as to the long winters and short, almost 

 sunless, summers of Fuegia. The only necessary 

 condition seems to be a moderate amount of moisture ; 

 but even as to this there is wonderful contrast between 

 the long rainless summer and slight winter rainfall of 

 Valparaiso, and the tropical rains of Brazil on the one 



