BOUGUER's voyage to PERU. 



^n 



olive, that this climate is rather too warm for it, and that it would turn to better 

 account beyond the other tropic, in the diftriOs of Chili, the moft neighbouring 

 upon the torrid zone. We noticed a great number of ilirubs and plants we have 

 not in Europe, and others which grow belter in the former than in the hitter coun- 

 try, as is evidenced by their growth. Acacias, brooms, ferns of numerous fpecies ; 

 the prickly Cuiges, the Opuntia, the different fpecies of aloes, not to mention the 

 Manghers, which even grow in the fea, and multiply to a prodigious degree by means 

 of their branches, which fo intertwine as in their turn to become trunks and roots. In 

 all thefe forefts nothing is to be found but heavy wood, excepting only a few plants, 

 converted by the goodnefs of the foil into trees. Mod of the fpecies, for inftance, 

 of the Ferule grows to a great height in Europe, principally in Pouille : but it attains 

 to a larger fize in the hot regions of Peru, and it yields a white wood, which, though 

 in weight four or five times lighter than the lightefl fir, is capable notwithftanding 

 of as great power. Nothing can be found more proper to make rafts, of which the 

 ufe is fometimes fo neceifary, travelling over thefe deferts*. 



It is only neceifary to penetrate into the thickefl; places of the forefls to find cedars, 

 of which there are two or three fpecies ; cotton trees ; and the various forts of ebony, 

 or hard wood ; Guyaco, and many other kinds of wood, efleemed for their fragrance 

 or colour, and for tlie fine polifh they will receive. The*trees known under the name 

 of Maria are diftinguilhable by the whitenefs of their bark, and their great height 

 and ftraightnefs ; thefe are the only trees in Peru they can convert into mafls for fhips 5 

 they are very flexible, nor are they fo exceflively heavy as almoft: all the others are. 

 I mud not omit noticing the palm-trees, of which I have myfelf reckoned more 

 than ten or twelve fpecies, yet there are many more. Confidered in every manner, 

 this is a very fingular tree : its branches, or rather leaves, being at the very top of 

 its trunk, gives it, notwithftanding its height, the form rather of a plant than a tree. 

 It is obferved in the hot countries of the torrid zone, trees fpread their roots near the 

 furface of the foil : but the roots of many of the palms are altogether out of the ground, 

 and the bafe of the trunk is obferved to lift itfelf up as the tree advances in age ; 

 it will fometimes rife to fix or feven feet, and the roots which divide form beneath a 

 kind of trench or pyramid, in the hollow of which it is poffible to fhelter onefelf. 



Near the fea thefe forefls fcarcely ever exceed the growth of a coppice ; in pro- 

 portion as you advance into land, the trees vifibly increafe in fize, and gradually in 

 height, and at feven or eight leagues from the coaft, and not at a fhorter diftance, they 

 attain to their utmofl elevation. This maxiniwn bears itfelf up ; it comprifes a very 

 confiderable traft, but at the fame time of unequal breadth, varying according to fitua- 

 tions ;' for if we continue to advance, we find the trees lofe much in their height, either 

 becaufe the quality of the land is no more the fame, or becaufe of the elevation of the 

 foil as it approaches the Cordelier, and its not having the fame depth of good earth ; 

 the fpaces between the trees are filled with a prodigious quantity of plants and pa- 

 rafite fhrubs ; fome of thefe entwine the trunks and branches ; others fall vertically in 

 a ftraight line, refembling cords attached to their heights ; the remaining voids are taken 

 up by bamboos of all growths, fome of them twenty or thirty feet high, and the moft 

 part of the larger ones thorny. When I fay that all the trees are encumbered with 

 plants and fhrubs, I mean to fay, generally ; we muft, I believe, except the Acomas, 

 which are confiderably larger here than in our iflands, and which, like even fome 

 other trees, have appeared to me exempt from mofs. They owe, apparently, this dif- 



* The Spaniards name this wood, Wood of Balfa. 



