M. J. C. DE MELLO AKD MR. H. SPEUCE ON PAPAYACE2E. li 



elevation ; and it is there that travellers and sedentary botanists 

 may confidently expect to find not only materials for the more 

 perfect elucidation of the species already partially known, but 

 also many new species, which doubtless still remain hidden in the 

 savage recesses of the oriental Andes. They delight to grow on 

 stony ajyringy hill-sides, and on little plateaux, under the shade 

 of loftier trees. They can scarcely be considered common plants ; 

 and it is not often that many individuals of one kind grow near 

 each other : but on the south-western side of the volcano Tun- 



guragua 



(at 7000 



perfect groves of Chambiiru — the common Carica of the Equa- 

 torial Andes, where it is cultivated up to 9000 feet for the sake 

 of its edible fruit. When I visited the spot, in February 1858, the 

 ground was strewed with its ripened and rotting fruits (smaller 

 and sweeter than those of the cultivated plant), which are said to 

 be a favourite food of the bears that infest the forests of Tun- 

 guragua. This Chamburu has a trunk as stout as that of the com- 

 mon Papaw ; and the leaves are even still larger. The fruits are 

 8 or 9 inches long, and sometimes nearly as broad ; the flesh i^ 

 whitish (not yellow, as in the Papaw), soft, and with a pleasant 

 flavoiu* — in cool sites sometimes very acid. Yelasco says (* His- 

 toria N'atural de Quito,* p. 58), with a little exaggeration, " Es de 

 las frutas de mayor y suavisima fragancia, bastantemente dulce, 

 de bellisimo gusto." Even this comparatively common species 

 I cannot identify with any described one. 



On the northern side of Tunguragua, towards the head of the 

 tepid stream Baccun, I came upon four distinct species of Carica, 

 growing together with Tree Perns, two or three kinds of Citrosma, 

 JEEigginsia latifolia, and other shrubby plants, under the shade of 

 tall Laurels, Weinmannia glabra, L, f., Turpinia venosa, sp. n-, 

 Dragon's Blood (a lofty tree, with a stout buttressed trunk, ap- 

 parently an undescribed Croton), a handsome Kubiaceous tree 

 {Joosice sp., hb. 5195), and other forest-trees ; while the course of 

 the Baccun was marked by red patches among the trees, arising 

 from the rigid ferrugineo-tomentose foliage of JPreziera lanata, 

 E. et P. Three of the Caricce rose to trees, one them 40 feet 

 high ; the other two barely exceeded half the height ; and the 

 fourth (on which I saw only decayed remnants of fruits) was no 

 thicker than a walking-stick, and barely 6 feet high. When I 

 came upon them, I and my attendant were already laden with spe- 

 cimens ; so that I had to content myself with a very few spe- 



