218 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



nearest to the perpetual snow, on the mountain-peak East of the crest of the Andes, 

 where traversed by the Canta route. 



Bromus (compare No. 11 Obrajillo in the mountain region). Having the habit of Festuca 

 bromoides; six inches high. In the environs of Casa-Cancha. 



(No. 12). Six to ten inches high ; spikelets of about three florets. In the envi- 

 rons of Casa-Cancha. 



(No. 13). Having the habit of our North American B. pubescens ; full two feei 



high ; spikelets pubescent ; long awns. In sheltering clefts of rocks, on the heights 

 above Casa-Cancha. 



? (No. 14). Three to six inches high ; thick woolly spikelets ; short awns. In 



the environs of Casa-Cancha. 

 Hordeum (No. 8). Having the habit of Arkansas sp. ; three to six inches high. Grrow- 



ing on the crest of the Andes, where traversed by the Canta route. 

 Gen. Cryptogam. ? (No. 1). Having the habit of certain mosses, and growing in large 



rounded masses; minute crowded foliaceous scales, spirally disposed, the stems like 



twisted cords. On the rocky heights, above the village of Alpamarca. 

 Filices, (bis lower down, in the Paramera and mountain-region). Some of the Paramera 



species extending into the alpine region, and growing in clefts of rocks on the heights 



above the village of Alpamarca. 

 Lichenes. Extremely rare, for a moist alpine district. 



6. The Mountain-region on the Eastern slope of the 

 Peruvian Andes. 



The Eastern Division of the Paramera was not visited : but its border 

 could not have been far from Casa-Cancha ; where there were no indi- 

 cations of change in the vegetable growth. The country beyond was 

 described as " pampas" or pasture-land for some sixty leagues East- 

 ward, to the " montanos" or wooded country ; the crest of the Andes 

 being estimated at one-third of the distance between the coast and the 

 " montaiios." 



According to Mr. Matthews, on first descending Eastward, " we lose 

 the Calceolarias, and their place is supplied by Ericacece now making 

 their appearance, the Ceratostemmas and Madeanias to which may 

 be joined other low woody plants, some Proteacece, Escallonieoe, and 

 Ternstroemiaceoe. 



Mr. Wilcox, residing on the crest of the Andes farther South, in- 

 formed me, that his " hacienda was at the elevation of fourteen thou- 

 sand and some hundred feet, and higher than Casa-Cancha :" our 

 interview, on the 7th of June, being "harvest-time in his neigh- 

 borhood, at Tarma and Xauja," the nearest cultivated districts on the 

 Eastern side of the Andes. 



