136 



never lose their foliage. Those kinds that are 

 known^ amount to ninet^'-seven^ and of these only 

 thirteen shed their leaves. Among the former 

 are mai) v that are remarkable for their fragrance,* 

 and are well deserving cultivation. Those that 

 are similar or vary but little from the European 

 treeS;, or which are to be met with in almost all 

 botanical gardens, I shall merely enumerate, re- 

 serving- my descriptions for such as are less 

 known, or distinguishable for some peculiarity. 



The valleys of the Andes produce naturally 

 the white cedar and the red, called alerces, the 

 cypress, the pine, and the pellinos, which is a 

 species of oak. All these trees grow to a great 



* The woods are full of aromatic shrubs j such as severaj 

 kinds of myrtle, a species of laurel whose leaves are of the 

 smell of saffron, but more pleasant ; the l-oldu, the leaves of 

 which have the odour of incense, and the bark a biting taste 

 something like that of cinnamon ; it is a different tree, how- 

 ever, from that called tlie cinnamon, which produces a bark 

 similar to that of the East Indies. The leaves of the boldu 

 are like those of the greater laurel, but rather larger. Tliere 

 is also another tree called ppumo, a decoction of the bark of 

 which is very beneficial in the dropsy. The fruit is red, and 

 rL'sembles an olive, and the wood is very proper for ship- 

 building ; but the best tree for this ptui)ose is a species of 

 evergreen oak, very hard and durable, whose bark is a cork 

 equal to that of the cork tree. On the shares of tlie river ' 

 Bio-bio are great quantities of cedar suitable for building, and 

 exc'llent for -^jars. The bamboo reed is likewise very com- 

 mon in every part of the country. Frazier's Voyage, vol. i. 



