FLORA OF CHILI. 



439 



gardens and enclosures reserved for exotics. The bamboo is absent, but replaced 

 by allied or analogous forms. 



South of Cachapoal the beech and the so-called "cypress," distinct from the 

 European genus, begin to present themselves in the forests, while on the slopes of 

 the Araucanian mountains is seen the pinon ( araucaria imbricata), one of the few 

 fruit-trees possessed by Chili before the arrival of the Europeans. The Antarctic 

 zone begins with the Fitzroya pat agon lea, wrongly called a " larch" ; it occurs in 

 the forests of Valdivia, but is confined to the mainland, being nowhere seen in the 

 neighbouring archipelagoes. On the other hand, the cypress of Chiloe [libocedrus 



Fig. 166. — Mas a Tieera, Eastern Member of the Juan Fernandez Grottp. 



Scale 1 : 175,000. 



, 3 Miles. 



tetragona) had ranged as far as the Guaiteca Islands ; but it had too little value to 

 be spared by the woodman's axe, and has now nearly disappeared. 



The pretended " oak," really a beech {fagus domheyi), and various other 

 varieties of this tree, forming a considerable part of the 69 species accredited 

 to the indigenous flora, constitute, with the birch and an aromatic tree [drimys 

 winteri) with foliage like that of the laurel, the great bulk of the forest vegetation 

 in the Magellanic archipelagoes. 



Of plants introduced from Europe and other regions, the most widely diffused 

 are the oak, which grows more rapidly than in its native home ; the poplar, in 

 great request for the alamedas or avenues about the large towns ; the eucalyptus, 

 willow, chestnut, and apple tree, which now runs wild ; lastly, the vine, wheat and 

 other economic plants. 



