THE TECHNOLOGIST, [April l, 1865. 



3UU THE INDIGENOUS VEGETATION OF 



groups of tall coco-palms, here and there diversified by the more rigid 

 date-palm, both growing and fruiting in the greatest luxuriance, their 

 ample fronds never mutilated by caterpillars as they are wont to be in 

 other regions; On the river bank grow also fine old willows (Salix 

 Humboldtiana), noticeable for their slender branches and long narrow 

 yellow-green leaves, contrasting strongly with the dark green of the 

 spreading guavas (Ing i sp.), and with the bright green foliage (passing to 

 rose at the tips of the branches) of the mango (Mangifera indica). 

 Mingled with these, or in square openings in the algarrobo woods, are 

 cultivated patches of sweet potatoes, yucas, maize, and cotton plants, 

 the latter distinguishable by their pale but fresh green colour; It was 

 a magnificent sight to look from this cliff towards the mouth of the 

 Chira when the sun was just setting over it, steeping the hills of Man- 

 cora in purple and violet, and gilding the fronds of the palms and the 

 salient edges of the adjacent cliffs, while the deep recesses of the latter 

 and the algarrobo woods were already shrouded in gloom. 



On descending into the valley, the natural i'orest of algarrobo is 

 found to occupy a strip of from a few hundred yards to three or four 

 miles in width, extending from the river on each side as far out as there 

 is permanent moisture at a moderate depth. It is divided by fences 

 into plots of various sizes, all private property, except a small breadth 

 of common lands adjacent to each village. I was surprised to hear these 

 plots called not fi woods," but " pastures " (potreros), for the trees grow 

 in them as thickly as trees do anywhere, and there is not underneath 

 them an herb of any kind. They are so called because the fruit of the 

 algarrobo is the main article of food for most of the domesticated animals, 

 and therefore corresponds to the pasturage of other countries. The 

 algarrobo is a prickly tree, rarely exceeding 40 feet in height, with 

 rugged bark not unlike that of the elm, but more tortuous, and with 

 bipinnate foliage like that of the Acacias, to which it is closely allied. 

 The roots penetrate the soil to only a slight depth, but extend a very 

 long way horizontally. On the desert I have seen an algarrobo root, 

 no thicker than the finger, stretch away to a length of 40 yards, evi- 

 dently in quest of moisture. As the trunks never grow straight, and 

 soon become tolerably corpulent, and their roots take too little hold of 

 the friable earth to sustain them against the squally winds, they very 

 generally fall over in age either into a reclining posture or quite pros- 

 trate, but immediately begin to turn their heads upwards, send off new 

 roots from every part of the trunk in contact with the soil, and thus get 

 Up anew in the world ; so that an old potrero or algarrobo wood has a 

 most irregular and fantastic appearance. Twice in the year the algar- 

 robo puts forth numerous pendulous racemes of minute yellow-green 

 flowers, which nourish multitudes of small flies and beetles, that in their 

 turn afford food to flocks of birds — negritos (blackbirds), soiias, chirocas, 

 putias, &c. — most of them songsters, and all of them more pleasantly gar- 

 rulous than anv similar assemblage of little birds I have met with else- 



