OF THE QUITENIAN ANDES. 185 
having found only a single tree standing, and from that one the 
bark had been stripped near the root, so that it was dead and leaf- 
less. We breakfasted, and then I accompanied them into the 
forest. We followed the track they had already opened, and then 
plunged deeper in, meeting every few minutes with prostrate 
naked trunks of the Cinchona, but with none standing. Bermeo 
several times climbed trees on the hill-sides, whence he could look 
over a large expanse of forest, but could nowhere get sight of the 
large red leaves of the Cinchona. At length we began to tire, and 
we decided on returning towards our hut, making a detour along 
a declivity which we had not yet explored. We went on still a 
long time with the same fortune, and were beginning to despair 
of seeing a living plant, when we came on a prostrate tree, from 
the root of which a slender shoot, 20 feet high, was growing. My 
satisfaction may well be conceived, and my first thought was to 
verify a report that had been made to me by every one who had 
collected Cascarilla, namely, that the trees had milky juice, which 
to me was strange and incredible in the Rubiacee. Bermeo made 
a slit in the bark with the point of his cutlass, and I at once 
saw what was the real fact. The juice is actually colourless, but 
the instant it is exposed to the air it turns white, and in a 
few minutes red. The more rapidly this change is effected, 
and the deeper is the ultimate tinge assumed, the more precious 
is the bark presumed to be. It is rare to find shoots springing 
from an old root, because the roots themselves are generally 
stripped of their bark, which, along with the bark from the lower 
part of the trunk, is known by the name of “ Cascarilla costrona” 
(from costra, a scab), and is of more value than that from any other 
part of the tree. uu 
The Cascarilla roja seems to grow best on stony declivities, 
where there is, however, a good depth of humus, and at an altitude 
of from 8000 to 5000 feet above the sea. The temperature is very 
much that of a summer-day in London, though towards evening 
each day cold mists blow down the valley from Azuay ; and for 
five months in the year—from January to May—there is almost 
unceasing rain. 
If the Cascarilla roja has been almost extirpated at Puma- 
cocha, there is still left abundance of Sarsaparilla, and of a very 
productive kind, for Bermeo assured me he had once taken 75 Ibs. 
Weight of the roots from a single plant; whereas in Brazil the 
Breatest yield I have heard quoted was a little over 801bs. The 
a-cocha species has a round stem and few prickles, while that 
