12 ^ 



of schinus molle, cactus, agave, and molina, are 

 scattered over the barren plain : and we see in 

 the foreground lamas (camelus lacma) sketched 

 from nature, and groups of Indians going to the 

 market of Lican. The flank of the mountain 

 presents that gradation of vegetable life, which I 

 have endeavoured to trace in my chart of the 

 Geography of plants, and which may be followed 

 on the western top of the Andes from the im- 

 penetrable groves of palm trees to the perpetual 

 snows, bordered by thin layers of lichens. 



At three thousand five hundred metres abso- 

 lute height, the ligneous plants with coriaceous 

 and shining leaves nearly disappear. The re- 

 gion of shrubs is separated from that of the 

 grasses by alpine plants, by tufts of nerteria, 

 valerian, saxifrage, and lobelia, and by small 

 cruciferous plants. The grasses form a very 

 broad belt, covered at intervals with snow, which 

 remains but a few days. This belt, called in the 

 country the pajonal, appears at a distance like a 

 gilded yellow carpet. Its colour forms an agree- 

 able contrast with that of the scattered masses of 

 snow ; and is owing to the stalks and leaves of 

 the grasses burnt by the rays of the sun in the 

 seasons of great draught. Above the pajonal 

 lies the region of cryptogamous plants, which 

 here and there cover the porphyritic rocks desti- 

 tute of vegetable earth. Farther on, at the limit 



