List of the Plants of Chile. 67 



Steudel and De Candolle have followed him and have only cited it 

 from the description of that author. Its flowers known by the name 

 of Aroma, exhale a very sweet odor like those of the Acacia Farnesi- 

 ana. The seeds enclosed in an almost cylindric pod have a very bad 

 taste when chewed and impart to the saliva, a very nauseous and 

 insupportable smell. It is said that burnt paper obviates this. The 

 wood is solid hard and weighty ; of a bright yellow ; the heart red. 

 Its wood makes good charcoal and is commonly used for domestic 

 purposes ; but as its consumption is great and as the tree is becoming 

 scarce in the neighborhood of the towns, and being of slow growth, 

 it would be well to replace it with shoots of poplars or of some oth- 

 er trees easily obtained. It is also employed in palisades and its 

 branches being covered with thorns it makes an excellent hedge. 

 With its trunk are formed beams for building and forks (horcones) 

 for vineyards. It does not rot under ground but exposed to the air 

 is attacked by insects. Turners use it in different works and it serves 

 equally well for cart-wheels and door-ways. It yields a gum which 

 might be substituted for the Arabic were it more abundant. 



Acacia strombulifera. Willdenow. Known by the name Retor- 

 ton. This small tree is originally from Peru and is found cultivated 

 in gardens. To the pods is attributed the virtue of curing tooth- 

 ache and diseases of the gums. 



Acaena 'pinnatifida. Ruiz and Pavon. A slightly astringent plant 

 which grows in stony pasture grounds 5 its fruit is called amor seco 

 or cadillo. 



Adenostemum nitidum. Persoon. Tree from ten to fifteen varas 

 high. It is found in the woods in the neighborhood of Leona and 

 is known by the name of tdmo (elm). It does not differ perhaps 

 from the Queule which grows in the province of Conception. Its 

 appearance and foliage are elegant; its fruit resembles a small 

 orange. It should be cultivated as an ornamental tree. 



Adesmia. Genus established by De Candolle. Many of its spe- 

 cies have been described by authors under the name of Hedysarum 

 and ^schynomene. The Palhuen which I have named ./2. arborea, 

 a pretty shrub which is found in the stony and arid situations about 

 hills approaches the Zuccagnia punctata. Cavanilles. Its foliage, 

 the number and color of its flowers, and above all its pods, clothed 

 with very long and different colored hairs, make it interesting in Eng- 

 lish gardens. The other species are all herbaceous, as the A. lon- 

 gi^eta, muricata, papposa, pendida, and Smithia, De Candolle, 



