Barrenness of the Pampas

Abstract

IN the admirable address of Prof. Asa Gray at Montreal, he alludes to the singular absence of trees and herbaceous plants throughout the Pampas or vast level plains of the South American continent, and he indorses the opinion of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Ball that this absence is due to the fact that the only country from which they could have been derived could not supply species adapted to the soil and climate. As this is a subject to which I paid considerable attention during a long residence in South America, I venture to call attention to the explanation of this phenomenon, which my observations gave rise to as described in my “Visit to South America,” 1878.