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The date is found in the province of Copiapo ; but 

 Î know not whether it is indigenous or was brought 

 thither from some other place. The islands of Juan 

 Fernandez produce a species of palm called cJionta, 

 The trunk, like that of most other palms, is hollow, 

 and the wood is black and as hard as ebony. Another 

 tree, which I have called ampclo musa, resembles 

 the palm, and grows in great cjuantities in the marshes 

 of Maiile; the leaves proceed directly from the top 

 of the trunk, and are large and green like those of 

 tlie banana; the fruit is disposed in four clusters like 

 those of the vine, and the resemblance is so perfect 

 that were it not for a sharp and astringent taste it 

 might readily be mistaken for a grape. 



The pehiien (pinus Araucana) called by the Spa- 

 niards piîio de la tierra, resembles the fir more than 

 the pine, although in some respects it differs from 

 both. It is the most beautiful of the trees of Chili, 

 and grows spontaneously in the Araucanian pro- 

 vinces, but is cultivated in all other parts of the 

 countiy, and, from its properties, partakes of the 

 nature of the pine, the chesnut and the frankincense. 

 The trunk is frequently eighty feet in height, and its 

 usual circumference is eight; the wood is very re- 

 sinous, and of a yellowish brov/n, and the bark 

 smooth and greenish; the tree as it increases in 

 height shedding all the little branches and leaves 

 with which it is covered while young. When it 

 attains the half of its growth it puts forth, in a hori- 

 zontal direction, four durable limbs opposite to each . 

 other in the form of a cross; the four following 

 branches are disposed in the same manner but 



