70 Cordova s Voyage of Discovery 



it would be wrong either to assert or to believe, that there are 

 not in the interior other classes. 



The whole of the district we have described as so unfit for 

 vegetation, from the excessive want of uioisture in the soil, is, 

 nevertheless, overrun with a species of plant resembliiig oat- 

 grass, and with another which grows in plenty in the Falk« 

 land Islands, and is there called paxonol. In the month 

 of December this was in its full vigour, the colour between 

 green and yellow, as then nearly ripe and drying up, when it 

 remains like straw. This is the substance with which the Pata- 

 gonians make their torches; an(J, as far as we saw, it fur- 

 nished good matter for the flame, being else, in all appearance, 

 extremely fit for the use of cattle, as has been experienced in 

 the Falkland Islands. 



1st. There'is one plant, two feet in height, very thick and 

 bush}-, its leaves like those of the cypress, and of the same co- 

 lour: at the extremity of each is found a small yellow flower; 

 so that each little branch forms a sort of nosegay or bouquet of 

 flowers, which are very small and of a strong aromatic smell, 

 stronger than thyme. The taste is very bitter and resinous. 

 This plant produces no prickles, nor fruit of any sort: its roots 

 are very much scattered, although they are but slender and 

 weak. Whei) you rub the leaves against the hand, they leave 

 a very agreeptble and refreshing odour. It resembles a little the 

 erica, or heath, of Spain ; but may rather be considered as a 

 species peculiar to this strait. 



2d. The next plant has but few leaves, which are small, and 

 covered with a down. It is the shape of the palm of the hand ; 

 the colour of the upper surface a bright-green, and white and 

 more downy on the under surface : its taste is somewhat sub- 

 acid. The stalk is about I§ foot high, on which it sets, out 

 some flowers, which are white in the leaves, but yellow in the 

 centre of the calyx, resembling the marygold : these flowers 

 are always fouud in a cluster of three or tour together; the 

 stalk is also downy and slender; the root, which is white, is 

 from five to seven inches long : in some properties it resembles 

 the sorrel. 



3d. The third is about one foot high ; the leaves smaller than 

 those of sage, being whitish, thick, and hairy ; their smell a little 

 aromatic, and taste bitter: it seems to be a species of canipitis^ 

 or semper viva, of the fields. 



4th. The fourtii plant is a kind of shrub, little more than one 

 foot high, spreading over the ground for more than a yard in 

 circumference; the leaves round, shaped like the fruit of the 

 almond ; the colour a dark-green ; its branches thick set with 



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