110 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



shrubs belonging to the Compositce, as Eupatorium salvia, Flourensia 

 thurifera, Eibxenia initiqui, and Proustia ; other large shrubs, as the 

 pubescent variety of Rhus ? caustica, the Teucrium hicoloi', the Azaras, 

 the Fuchsia rosea, remarkable for its flowers appearing before the leaves, 

 the showy yellow-flowered Sophora macrocurpa, and the Adesinia micro- 

 plnjUa ; and of herbaceous and humble plants, inVerheiia, Linum aqui- 

 linum with its yellow flowers, Wahlenbergia linarioides, an Acoina, two 

 or more Oenotheras, Noticastrum adscendeiis, two or more Plantagos, and 

 Qiiinchamalium Chilense. 



There yet remains one locality that seems to require separate notice : 

 about twelve miles South of Valparaiso, a mountain-ridge begins to 

 project above the general level, extending immediately along the 

 coast. The increased elevation so near the ocean bringing an increase 

 of humidity, the ravines present some approach to a forest. The Pip- 

 tocarpha excelsa here made its appearance, a tree belonging to the Com- 

 positoe, forty feet high, with appressed branches and the trunk two 

 feet in diameter; an accompanying EJeagnus? and an Ilex?, both be- 

 came spreading trees of hardly inferior elevation ; an epidendric fern 

 even creeping on their trunks and branches ; while intermingled among 

 the trees, the Chusquea, no longer a dwarf bamboo, attained the height 

 of full thirty feet. The summit of this mountain-ridge was found 

 covered with trees of the Eugenioid chehan ? thirty feet high, with the 

 trunk two feet in diameter, intermingled with large arborescent 

 shrubs, as oiher My rtacece and the Poeppigia ; all somewhat gnarled 

 from mountain exposure, and their extreme branches bearing aViscutn- 

 like mistletoe, seen only on this elevated spot. 



Interior Chili. On the 18th, our party proceeded from Valparaiso 

 Eastward in wheel-carriages. Ascending to the table-land, its surface 

 for the first four or five miles proved gently undulating, then declining 

 perceptibly, and gradually subsiding into a narrow plain hemmed in 

 by mountains, where we arrived at the small village of Casa Blanca. 

 Farther on, at the end of this plain, we crossed a longitudinal moun- 

 tain-ridge "forty miles from Valparaiso;" the ascent and descent being 

 about equal, we next entered upon another and very similar plain, all 

 the way hemmed in by mountains, and containing the small village of 

 Coracovi ; where we stopped for the night. 



At 4 A.M. on the 19th, we again set out, and at sunrise reached a 

 Second and more elevated longitudinal mountain-ridge ; the descent 

 proved much shorter than the ascent, and we next entered upon a 



