[129] At this elevation grows an asclepiad (Pentagonium flavum), a little lowly plant with yellow flowers.—Chloris Andina, ii. p. 49.
[130] Baccharis Incarum of Weddell.—Chloris Andina, i. p. 170.
[131] Dr. Weddell mentions a composita (Merope piptolepis) as being common near the shores of these lakes.—Chloris Andina, i. p. 162. And an oxalis in the crevices of the rocks near La Compuerta.—Oxalis Nubigena, ii. p. 291.
In the neighbourhood of La Compuerta there are several other lowly alpine plants—a St. John's wort (Hypericum brevistylum), another oxalis, and two mallows, &c. &c.
[132] M. de Castelnau says that vessels exactly resembling those of lake Titicaca are represented on the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes.
[133] Gonzalez Montoya was the best Governor that Puno has ever known. He was a benevolent as well as a determined man, and abolished the mitas, or drafting of Indians for forced labour in the mines of Potosi. When ordered by the Government to restore the mitas, he replied, "Obedesco pero no cumplo."
[134] Garcilasso de la Vega says that the Indians boil the leaves of the sunchu, and then dry them in the sun, and keep them to eat in the winter.—I. lib. 8, cap. xv. p. 284.
[135] In 1663 the mines of Laycaycota, Cancharani, and San Antonio de Esquilache, near Puno, produced 1,500,000 dollars' worth of silver in one year!—Miller's Memoirs, ii. p. 238.
[136] Compendio del hecho y apuntamiento de derechos de Fisco, en la causa contra José de Salcedo, sobre las sediciones y tumultos del asiento de minas de Laycocota. Papeles Varios 2, in the National Library at Lima.
[137] This was the Count of Medellin who married Catalina Ponce de Leon, sister of the Duchess of Gandia, whose husband was brother of the Countess of Lemos.