ly tore up a shrub by the roots,--the sum of two hundred
millions of pounds sterling. The districts around, and specially the
environs of the town of Chuquisaca, are adorned with a profusion of
gardens and orchards, in which many European trees and flowers grow, as
well as those of the tropics, the climate possessing the charms of many
regions. In the shrubberies of the city, and in the gardens of the
Indian cottages, as well as the slopes of the surrounding mountains,
where the native groves and forests grow undisturbed, the brilliant
Bar-tail may be seen during the summer months; but, as soon as the
chilling winds of April tell of coming winter, the charming visitor
becomes scarce, and flitting northward finds in the forests of Lower
Peru the mild and balmy air which he loves. When the trees are in
blossom, and particularly the apple-trees, which have been introduced
from Europe, and are largely cultivated in orchards, the males may be
seen shooting in and out among the foliage, like glowing coals of fire,
chasing each other with shrill chirpings, and with surprising
perseverance and acrimony. The fields of maize, and pulse, and other
leguminous plants which are cultivated in the plains, receive a fair
share of his attention; and the nopaleries, or cactus-gardens, where the
cochineal insect is reared for those most valuable crimson and scarlet
dyes, which far outshine the vaunted productions of ancient Tyre. The
blossom of the nopal is itself one of the most splendid of flowers. It
begins to open as the sun declines, and is in full expanse throughout
the night, shedding a delicious fragrance, and offering its brimming
goblet, filled with nectareous juice, to thousands of moths, and other
crepuscular and nocturnal insects. When the moon is at the full in those
cloudless nights whose loveliness is known only in the tropics, the
broad blossom is seen as a circular disk nearly a foot in diameter, very
full of petals, of which the outer series are of a yellowish hue,
gradually paling to the centre, where they shine in the purest white.
The numerous recurving stamens surround the style which rises in the
midst like a polished shaft, the whole glowing in its silvery beauty
under the moonbeams, from the dark and matted foliage, and diffusing its
delicious clove-like fragrance so profusely that the air is loaded with
it for furlongs round.

Other species of Cactus and Cereus, some with yellow, and some with
pink, and some with