THE PAMPAS GRASS. 273 



rare Salvertia, fragrant as the lily of the valley, and with its blossoms 

 disposed in thyrses which outvie in beauty those of the chestnut. 



In the genial smiling country which extends from Monte Video 

 to the mouth of the Rio Nigro, the vegetation is almost wholly 

 confined to Grammece. It is in this region that the feathery Pampas 

 Grass (Gynerium argenteum) nourishes luxuriantly, covering leagues 

 upon leagues with its silvery panicles and drooping leaves, which, 

 when stirred by a gentle wind, ripple like the slow-moving, spray- 

 gleaming waters of a sunny sea. It has become of late years a 

 favourite ornament of our British gardens, and may justly be taken 

 as a type of tender loveliness.* Beyond the Rio Negro the country 

 puts on a wilder aspect, and it is with difficulty the most adven- 

 turous botanist can penetrate into its recesses. 



Nearly all the southern districts of Patagonia form, as we have 

 already seen, an immense and almost level plain, whose soil is gene- 

 rally dry, arid, and impeded with large pebbles ; the northern 

 districts, on the other hand, offer a less monotonous landscape, are 

 broken up with rocks and ravines, interspersed among tolerably 

 fertile pastures, whose flora has not yet been fully investigated. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE FLORA OF THE AUSTRALIAN PLAINS. 



THE Deserts of the Australian interior have been laboriously tra- 

 versed, not, as we have seen, without much suffering, and even 

 sacrifice, by a handful of intrepid travellers, who have proposed to 

 themselves simply the solution of certain geographical problems. It 



* The Pampas grass is very hardy. Its stems are from ten to fourteen feet high, its 

 leaves six or eight feet long, and its panicles of flowers silvery white, and from eighteen 

 inches to two feet in length. Another Brazilian species of the same genus, Gynerium 

 sacchar -aides, yields a considerable quantity of sugar. 



18 



