316 CHARLES DARWIN 



paths in an orchard. I have never seen any country, where 

 apple-trees appeared to thrive so well as in this damp part of 

 South America: on the borders of the roads there were 

 many young trees evidently self-grown. In Chiloe the in- 

 habitants possess a marvellously short method of making an 

 orchard. At the lower part of almost every branch, small, 

 conical, brown, wrinkled points project: these are always 

 ready to change into roots, as may sometimes be seen, where 

 any mud has been accidentally splashed against the tree. A 

 branch as thick as a man's thigh is chosen in the early spring, 

 and is cut off just beneath a group of these points, all the 

 smaller branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about 

 two feet deep in the ground. During the ensuing summer 

 the stump throws out long shoots, and sometimes even bears 

 fruit: I was shown one which had produced as many as 

 twenty-three apples, but this was thought very unusual. In 

 the third season the stump is changed (as I have myself 

 seen) into a well- wooded tree, loaded with fruit. An old 

 man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, " Necesidad es la 

 madre del invencion," by giving an account of the several 

 useful things he manufactured from his apples. After mak- 

 ing cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse a 

 white and finely flavoured spirit; by another process he pro- 

 cured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. His children 

 and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of the 

 year, in his orchard. 



February nth. I set out with a guide on a short ride, in 

 which, however, I managed to see singularly little, either 

 of the geology of the country or of its inhabitants. There 

 is not much cleared land near Valdivia: after crossing a 

 river at the distance of a few miles, we entered the forest, and 

 then passed only one miserable hovel, before reaching our 

 sleeping-place for the night. The short difference in lati- 

 tude, of 150 miles, has given a new aspect to the forest, com- 

 pared with that of Chiloe. This is owing to a slightly 

 different proportion in the kinds of trees. The evergreens 

 do not appear to be quite so numerous, and the forest in 

 consequence has a brighter tint. As in Chiloe, the lower 

 parts are matted together by canes: here also another kind 

 (resembling the bamboo of Brazil and about twenty feet in 



