230 



HORTICULTURE IN THE COPIAPO VALLEY. 



here and at Valparaiso to the height of thirty or forty 

 feet. The leaves have a strong terebinthine odor, which 

 lingers upon the fingers long after they have been han- 

 dled. The people have a fancy, whether correct or not 

 I cannot say, that when numerous about school build- 

 ings or dwelling-houses, these trees are injurious to the 

 health. The Auarcardiau-iC , to which it belongs botan- 

 ically, are a pretty suspicious family, and the popular 

 opinion is very likely to be trne. 



The Australian eucalyptus (£. glohiihis) also thrives 

 well in this region, as it does in fact all over the Argen- 

 tine Republic, on the other side of the Andes. A tree 

 known as the Australian pine, frequently occurs in the 

 gardens of the valley ; it is a striking object with long hor- 

 izontal branches, which gradually shorten towards the 

 top, giving the tree a conical outline. It grows to an 

 immense height. Several kinds of willows border the 

 banks of the river, one of them known as the sauce 

 lloron, with the most lovely drooping, deep green tinted 

 foliage that I ever saw. 



The streets are also adorned with the sturdy native 

 algorroba, known as the chanar, which, at the time of 

 my visit, was clothed profusely with its bright yellow 

 flowers, and which can flourish in the sandy soil with- 

 out difficulty. The Tainari.x Jiidica is also one of the 

 few shrubs which can live and thrive in the desert with 

 little or no watering. Strangely enough its leaves seem 

 to be covered with moisture even in the hottest day, and 

 always wet the papers when laid between the driers of 

 the botanist. 



Of flowers everybody in these parts is inordinately 

 fond, and they have good reason for being so, for I have 

 never seen finer specimens in our hot-houses than grow 

 in the open air all the year round in this genial climate. 

 Rose bushes at least fifteen feet high, and loaded with 

 large double flowers, are grown in all the gardens. The 



purple heliotrope of our northern green-houses forms 

 great bushes higher than a man's head, scenting the air 

 with its delicious perfume. Geraniums and pelargoni- 

 ums bearing huge trusses of bright hued blossoms daz- 

 zle the eye with their brilliancy. Indeed, I never saw 

 their equal anywhere else except at Valparaiso and 

 Lima. Sweet peas of all colors, and bachelor's but- 

 tons, five to ten feet tall, and fuchsias, springing into 

 bushy clumps which are covered with bells of pink and 

 blue, daze one with their size and loveliness. Hedges 

 of tall ox-eye daisies and rows of shrubby oleanders, 

 both white and red, are seen enclosing the walks of the 

 principal plaza in Copiapo. Scores of flowers whose 

 popular names I know not, might be seen peeping in 

 tangled bowers over the high mud walls. A lady of my 

 acquaintance, who owned one of these floral labyrinths, 

 handed me the key of her garden gate, and said that I 

 should confer a favor if I would cut off as many flowers 

 as I could carry away, since they grew so luxuriantly that 

 she could hardly keep her garden trimmed. I inter- 

 preted her permission so liberally that I could scarcely 

 grasp in my arms the bouquet which I culled. Instead 

 of being offended, she very naively asked my friends if 

 they could not render her a similar service the next day ! 



To leave these richly-laden fields and gardens and 

 climb a short distance up the appallingly desolate hill- 

 sides, which are scarcely a hundred feet away, fairly 

 bewilders the writer, so strange is the contrast. Most 

 of all he wonders at the marvellous transformation 

 which a few drops of water can produce in the natural 

 scenery ; and he earnestly prays that the final drying up 

 of these little Chileno rivers, which appears to be coming 

 nearer year by year, may be delayed for many centu- 

 ries yet. 



Ne-v York. Thomas Morong. 



