72 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



officinale var. Icevigatum), a plant which enjoys a wide range, 

 being distributed over Europe, ISTorthern and Central Asia, 

 and North America. Here also a pretty little narrow-leaved 

 barberry, now almost out of flower, covered the ground in 

 many spots with its prostrate stems ; while, a little further 

 from the beach, the handsome yellow-flowered Geum Magel- 

 lanicum formed a conspicuous object. On the banks of the 

 ridge on which the houses stand, a Calceolaria {G. jplanta- 

 ginea) with four or five somewhat hairy ovato-rhomboid 

 radical leaves, and a flower-stem varying from six inches to 

 a foot high, surmounted by three or four elegant yellow 

 flowers ; a Viola, with similarly coloured flowers ; a shrubby 

 composite plant, the CliilahotJirium amelloides, growing from 

 two to three feet high, and bearing rather large yellow- 

 disked and white-rayed flowers ; and a small fern {Lomaria 

 alpina), common in temperate South America, and also met 

 with in New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, and the moun- 

 tains of South Australia, were abundant. A neighbouring 

 watercourse yielded me specimens of a stout-growing Com- 

 posite, with large heads of white flowers, nearly equalling in 

 size those of the ox-eye daisy, as well as several grasses, one 

 of which, the Flilczum alpinum, is not uncommon on the 

 Highland mountains of Scotland. One still more familiar 

 plant was the shepherd's purse {Ca;psella Bursa-pastoris) ; 

 but this evidently must have been introduced through the 

 agency of man, as I never saw it except in the vicinity of the 

 settlement. 



Before setting out on our walk, several of us went to see 

 some tame guanacos (quadrupeds to which I shall make 

 frequent reference in this narrative), kept in an enclosure 

 near the governor's house. While we were engaged in in- 

 specting them, they favoured us with a fine illustration of their 



