44 SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
sedges and in the more barren places, large areas clothed with 
Andropogons. Beautiful aquatics are found wherever the soil is 
suitable. 
Leaving the steamer and traveling by mule, we rapidly climb 
to the dry table-lands near the base of the mountains and at places 
are obliged to cross projecting mountain spurs. In the lower 
places, we are impressed by the beauty of hedges of mata-raton, 
a small tree related to Robinia and handsomely covered with rose- 
purple panicles of flowers. Upon this part of the journey, we find 
great numbers of shrubby and herbaceous vines belonging to the 
milkweed and dogbane families. We crossed during the height 
of the dry season so that there was almost no collecting to be done, 
but it was quite evident that at certain seasons the flora of this 
mesa must be exceedingly rich and wonderfully beautiful. Among 
the grasses, Boutelouas are the most conspicuous. Water was 
scarce at this season, so that cattle and other domestic animals 
were forced to confine themselves to the narrow strips along the 
rivers and quebradas. Ав a result, these places were very much 
over-run and their flora largely destroyed. The shrubby and 
arborescent vegetation of these ravines and smaller river valleys 
consists largely of Acacias, among which are many cactuses, so 
that travel among them is very difficult. Large shrubby and 
arborescent Crotons and Solanums here continue to maintain a 
prominent position. : 
At length we are so fortunate as to be able to leave the pros- 
trating heat, filthy odors, and mosquito- and malaria-infested 
valleys of the mesa, and to plunge among the ravines and canyons 
of the eastern mountain range. No sooner does one enter one of 
these valleys than he finds a rich forest growth, maintained at all 
seasons by the streams which flow upon or close to the surface of the 
earth. The composition of this flora bears a general resemblance 
to that of the remainder of the Andes. -Its chief interest will 
center in the mixture of genera and species respectively peculiar 
to the south and east, and cannot be discussed until our collec- 
tions shall have been studied. Crotons maintain the supremacy 
at the lower altitudes, while Solanums persist for a great distance 
farther up. We see many large areas on the open hillsides that 
are covered with a tall and stout Andropogon of a deep rusty-red 
