BATHS ON APOQUINTO. 189 



plants yet in flower, we accomplished the distance of 

 nine miles in little over an hour. 



The establishment at Apoquinto is on a small scale 

 and somewhat rustic in character, but it had been 

 recently taken by an Englishman, and now supplies 

 fair accommodation, which would be prized by a 

 naturalist who should be fortunate enough to visit 

 Chili at a favourable season. We mounted our horses 

 without delay, and at once commenced the ascent, 

 gentle for a short way, but soon becoming so steep 

 that it was more convenient to dismount at several 

 places. Under the experienced guidance of my 

 companion, I found more interesting plants still in 

 flower or fruit than I had ventured to expect at this 

 season. I here for the first time found a species of 

 Mulinum, one of a large group of umbelliferous plants 

 characteristic of the Chilian flora, and nearly all 

 confined to South America. The leaves in the 

 commonest species are divided into a few stiff pointed 

 segments, reminding one somewhat of the Echinophora 

 of the Mediterranean shores, once erroneously sup- 

 posed to be a native of England. 



I was especially struck on this day with the 

 extraordinary variety of odours, pleasant or the 

 reverse, that are exhaled by the native plants of Chili. 

 As commonly happens in dry countries, a large 

 proportion of the native plants contain resinous gums, 

 each of which emits some peculiar and penetrating 

 smell. I had already observed this elsewhere in the 

 country, but, perhaps owing to the great variety of 

 the vegetation on these slopes, the recollections of the 

 day are indelibly associated with those of the im- 



