116 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 



invest the mountains it grows upon with " a peculiar and 

 almost awful appearance ; something which plainly tells us 

 that we are not in Europe." Some of these also are as 

 much as three hundred feet high and thirty-two feet in cir- 

 cumference. 



But as we have as yet much to see of the character of 

 this zone in the other hemisphere, we too must betake 

 ourselves to San "Francisco, and from thence set sail for 

 the southern part of Chili, as that portion of it which lies 

 in this zone must be visited before we proceed to other 

 countries more interesting, for many reasons, to us English 

 people. It will not take long to tell all we know of the 

 broader features of vegetation in this part of South America. 

 Thick forests of tall timber-trees cover a great portion of 

 the country, composed chiefly of different kinds of Beech 

 and Laurel, a tree of the Laurel family called Persea, and 

 others. 



In one district called Talcahuano "evergreen woods 

 prevail just as in the corresponding zone in the South of 

 Europe, only two or three trees losing their foliage in the 

 winter." Amongst the climbing plants, one must be par- 

 ticularly mentioned, with " large, evergreen, and glossy 

 dark-green leaves, and bright red liliaceous flowers," called 



