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230 the ankle more perfectly. It is attended, however, by this inconvenience, that, in climbing a hill, or on any sudden motion, the wearer makes an exposure which borders on indecency. Its numerous plaits cause it to assume a variety of graceful forms, at the same time that they render it very costly, fifteen yards of stuff at the least being consumed in the outward covering. The expence of this article of dress alone, is rated at between three and four hundred crowns; notwithstanding which, a modish female of Lima seldom pays a ceremonious visit, without having previously had recourse to the Bodegones, the principal street in which the fashion-mongers reside, for a faldellin of the newest taste. In their jewels, and, in general, in every part of their dress, the ladies of the Peruvian capital are equally extravagant.

One of their favourite ornaments is the puchero de flores, or nosegay, which, as it may serve to illustrate the progress of luxury in that capital, with the civil history of which it is in some degree connected, merits a detailed description. Its basis consists of the blossom of a small apple of the size of a nut, of a white lily, of one or two rose-buds, of the same number of cherry-blossoms, and of the flowers of the Seville orange; the whole laid on a plane -leaf, of the dimension of the eighth part of a sheet of paper. On the surface of this plane-leaf are disposed chamomile-flowers, the flowers of the yellow lily, violets, daisies, and thyme; and, over these again, a small branch of bazil mint, another of a sweet pea bearing a violet flower intermixed with white, and, occasionally, a stem of hyacinth, a branch of the odoriferous rush having yellow flowers and white leaves, and the soms