MACLOSKIE: CHARACTER AND ORIGIN OF THE PATAGONIAN FLORA. 949 



ing, the country is still unimproved as compared with other sections of 

 Neogsea. If the mountain range and the moisture had been on the 

 eastern side perhaps the present conditions should have been better. And 

 men may nevertheless discover, as they are already realizing, that round 

 by the western shore good lands remain, inviting colonization and agri- 

 cultural development. 



It must be conceded that in its present condition the vast eastern plain 

 is not attractive. The special adaptations to a xerophil life are no.t things 

 of beauty. Dense, woolly hair, secretions of resin and wax, reduction in 

 size of leaves, involution of leaf-margins, closely apposed leaf-surfaces, 

 pulvinate habit, the ramifications being very intricate and packed together 

 into moss-like masses which you can hardly cut with a knife ; thick epi- 

 dermis, often backed beneath by thick hypodermis, and often strengthened 

 by scleroderm as buttresses ; deeply immersed stomata ; in grasses con- 

 volute leaves and development' of nodal cushions, and the brownish or 

 lurid shading of leaves and flowers characterize that vegetation. The 

 steppes are a low plateau, devoid of trees, but with herbs, shrubs and 

 thorny bushes, the herbs being largely gramineous, and synantherous (of 

 Calyceraceae and Composite) . In winter the bare interspaces between 

 the shrubs become filled, after rain, by Alfilerillo (Erodium.) which is 

 valuable for sheep, and may yet become a leading factor for civilization. 

 In the alluvial ground, and low parts, wheat and grape vines, and apple 

 trees, when introduced flourish very well. The marine algae, and the 

 fisheries, give promise of future productiveness. 



Some of the rivers which flow into the Pacific Ocean have their sources 

 in the tertiary plateau which extends east of the main Cordilleras, and 

 penetrate the mountain axis, cutting their way westward, a feature which 

 is very frequent along the whole Andean Chain. In Patagonia a long 

 line of cliffs borders the Atlantic coast, being interrupted at intervals, 

 where broad valleys open into the sea, and carry rivers from more ele- 

 vated parts and the mountain lakes. This general plain rises towards the 

 Cordilleras, with depressions which contain the straggling streams and 

 the salinas, or saltish lakes ; whilst occasionally, especially in the southern 

 parts, immense sheets of basaltic lava cover the surface. "The aspect 

 rapidly changes along the approaches of the Cordillera. It is a broken 

 region, often mountainous, rich in prairies, rich above all in sheets of 

 water, the smallest of which equals the area of the great European lakes ; 



