344 
Charles  Darwin. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1909. 
that  the  atmosphere  has  been  deprived  of  its  moisture  by  passing 
over  the  mountains,  the  arid  plains  of  Patagonia  support  a  most 
scanty  vegetation.  In  the  more  northern  parts  of  the  continent, 
within  the  limits  of  the  constant  southeastern  trade-wind,  the  eastern 
side  is  ornamented  by  magnificent  forests ;  whilst  the  western  coast, 
from  lat.  40  S.  to  lat.  320  S.  may  be  described  as  a  desert;  on  this 
western  coast  northward  of  lat.  400  S.,  where  the  trade-wind  loses 
its  regularity,  and  heavy  torrents  of  rain  fall  periodically,  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific,  so  utterly  desert  in  Peru,  assume  near  Cape  Blanco 
the  character  of  luxuriance  so  celebrated  at  Guayaquil  and  Panama. 
Hence  in  the  southern  and  northern  parts  of  the  continent  the 
forest  and  desert  lands  occupy  reversed  positions  with  respect  to 
the  Cordillera,  and  these  positions  are  apparently  determined  by 
the  direction  of  the  prevalent  winds.  In  the  middle  of  the  continent 
there  is  a  broad  intermediate  band,  including  Central  Chile  and  the 
provinces  of  La  Plata,  where  the  rain-bringing  winds  have  not  £0 
pass  over  lofty  mountains  and  where  the  land  is  neither  a  desert  nor 
covered  by  forests.  But  even  the  rule,  if  confined  to  South  America, 
of  trees  flourishing  only  in  a  climate  rendered  humid  by  rain-bear- 
ing winds,  has  a  strongly  marked  exception  in  the  case  of  the 
Falkland  Islands.  These  islands,  situated  in  the  same  latitude  with 
Tierra  del  Fuego  and  only  between  two  and  three  hundred  miles 
distant  from  it,  having  a  nearly  similar  climate,  with  a  geological 
formation  almost  identical,  with  favorable  situations,  and  the  same 
kind  of  peaty  soil,  yet  can  boast  of  few  plants  deserving  even  the 
title  of  bushes ;  whilst  in  Tierra  del  Fuego  it  is  impossible  to  find 
an  acre  of  land  not  covered  by  the  densest  forest."  With  the  same 
scrupulous  care  of  details  and  in  his  characteristic  straightforward 
style,  Darwin  goes  on  in  his  journal  to  describe  the  history  of  the 
voyage  with  Captain  FitzRoy,  together  with  a  sketch  of  those  obser- 
vations in  natural  history  and  geology  which  the  young  naturalist 
hoped  might  possess  some  interest  for  the  general  reader.  Darwin's 
hope  that  his  observations  might  prove  of  some  interest  as  wrell  as 
remain  of  general  value  has  had  a  recent  exemplification.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
held  in  Baltimore  during  the  last  Christmas  holidays,  Prof.  Roland 
Thaxter,  of  Harvard  University,  described  in  a  very  entertaining 
manner  the  result  of  a  trip  to  the  southern  end  of  South  America 
in  the  Straits  of  Magellan  and  by  way  of  introduction  spoke  of  the 
botanic  observations  of  Charles  Darwin  on  the  beech  forests  of 
