PERUVIAN REGIONS. 



173 



The objects principally attracting the eye, were the Cadacem ; not 

 such as we are accustomed to in conservatories ; but from the variety 

 of fantastic shapes, presenting cactus scenes altogether undreamed of. 

 Numerous species were observed ; but forming inconvenient speci- 

 mens, we were obliged to leave most of them unrecorded. 



Tillandsias were in greater variety than in the Desert-region below ; 

 but instead of growing on the ground, they had resumed their 

 proper station, on the branches of shrubs, on Cacti, and on the face 

 of projecting rocks. 



The entire absence of the wildness and magnificence of forest-clad 

 countries, gave rise to a feeling of disappointment. The ground was 

 everywhere covered with gaudy flowers, like a garden run wild ; grow- 

 ing, not in beds, but promiscuously, and separately interspersed, and 

 admitting of the following enumeration by colors : green, with the 

 herbage, being in a good measure lost sight of; scarlet was sprinkled 

 around in brilliant flowers, of an Indigofera, Scutellaria, several Salvias 

 and Mutisias ; blue, profusely intersprinkled in flowers of other Salvias, 

 of a Plumbago, several Polygalew and Lupines ; orange, in flowers of 

 Tropceolums, Loasas, and of a Lobelia ; purple, in the flowers of a 

 Bacasia or Barnadesia, and of a Boerhaavia remarkable for its large 

 corolla ; but over all the rest, and the whole face of the country, 

 bright-yellow predominated, from the array of Calceolarias, Senecios, 

 and Heliatithoid Compositce. 



Cattle were now seen upon the hills; and the ascent continuing 

 steep; at the end of "six leagues," or four from the commencement of 

 the region, we arrived at noon at Obrajillo : a cluster of perhaps a 

 hundred cottages, situated a mile from Canta, a smaller village that 

 has given its name in books to this botanical locality. — In the after- 

 noon, Mr. Brackenridge and myself, made an excursion to the cascade 

 on the opposite mountain-slope. For once, we were in the season of 

 the annual plants; though some of the species seemed fugacious 

 enough to spring up, flower, and ripen seed, more than once a year, 

 or even with a passing shower. The term "annual" is therefore 

 hardly more applicable than in the Atacaman Desert-region farther 

 South ; where plants are known to make their appearance only with 

 the occurrence of rain, at intervals of many years. 



Through the assistance of Mr. Rich, we were enabled to continue 

 our journey; and, on the 19th, having procured a new set of mules, 



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