152 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



off, continued to flourish upon the loose, powdery soil at base, and 

 being joined by Lichens spread around in beds. 



Two species of Cereus, low, bristly, and hardly distinguishable in 

 color from the soil, besides being covered with Lichens, were growing 

 in the Tillandsia-beds, and in their neighborhood : where also the 

 clefts and base of rocks presented plants growing singly, that were 

 devoid of any peculiarity of habit. The same solitary plants occurred 

 in fact throughout the Desert, though at first overlooked ; being un- 

 obtrusive, a foot or two high, and seldom more frequent than one 

 plant to an acre of ground. These Desert-plants presented no impress 

 of aridity, no tendency to become spinescent, and consisted in great 

 part of the following species: a Jasticia, bearing long, red flowers; a 

 BuelUa, with small, white flowers; a Lycoperslciim, with pubescent 

 fruit; (jen. Samki-liJce, a low shrub, with linear and very tender 

 leaves; a Nothltes, also a shrub; a hoary Afrq>hx?; a TaJinum ? ; 

 gen. Compos, with corymbose, yellow flowers; a procumbent Oeno- 

 thera ; and a softly-pubescent, blue-flowered EcolmiJas. Yet so de- 

 cidedly Desert is the character of the country, that places can readily 

 be selected, where one may walk a mile without passing a single 

 plant. 



An exceptional locality exists in the neighborhood of Lima ; the 

 Amancaes mountain-ridge, " nearly three thousand feet high," facing 

 the South wind coming from the sea, and deriving in consequence 

 more than the usual supply of moisture. On looking up, I was sur- 

 prised to perceive patches of green along the brow of this mountain- 

 ridge, at the heads of the ravines; found, on ascending, to be beds 

 of a species of Bromelia: an entire leaved Carica, was here frequent, 

 a tree according to the stoutness of its trunk and branches, though 

 only five to eight feet high ; and the clefts of the rocks contained two 

 species of Peperomia. — These ravines are further remarkable for put- 

 ting forth a growth of plants annually; the sun in the "winter" 

 season acting with somewhat diminished power on the supply of 

 moisture. The commencement was observed on the 3d of June ; 

 when the low, red stems and white flowers of a Begonia making their 

 appearance before the leaves, presented a striking vernal aspect; each 

 cluster, however, having for a root a wide and tlattened underground 

 woody cake : a small tuberous-rooted species of OxaJis was also begin- 

 ning to show itself — On the 10th of June, the Begonia was in full 

 flower : and a single " Amancaes lily," Ismene amancaes, was met 



