17 
used to the saddle, I am fortunately provided with a riding- 
beast, and have procmed four others, at about 200 dollars: but 
the bargain was attended with much difficulty, for the people 
here are very hard to deal with, 
I spent about a fortnight in the mountains of Ocafia, From 
the peculiarly marly nature of the soil, a Befaria is common, 
even at this elevation: there are plants of it in the glass-case. 
Two gigantic forest-trees, species of Cinchona, abound in 
the virgin w'oods, they arfe conspicuous and highly fragrant. 
The most remarkable things I have found are two kinds of 
Bijohocampylus, one particularly handsome and rare; I send 
growing plants of them. Also, some small specimens of a most 
remarkable Balanophora, which I have often seen, five or six 
inches in diameter. The natives call it ‘ Cardon de la Cordillera 
Its colour is Indian-red and its rigid bracteas completely enclose 
the flower when in its most perfect state. Moist places, near the 
summit of the range, produce it abundantly. Also, another 
singular plant, allied to Balanophora, but quite a distinct genus : 
I have only three specimens and they are not yet dry. A showy 
Salvia, and a most beautiful Begonia,* so closely resembling a 
Fuchsia, that I took it for one: in habit, and inflorescence, it 
rivals om* finest cultivated Fuchsias, and excels them by being 
in bloom all the year: I send growing plants and a few seeds 
of it, and a quantity of roots of two species of Achimenes, new 
to me; one, which I gathered in flower, grows dwarfish, its flowers 
are showy and white. Of Orchidea I found few: Nos. 1 and 2 
are handsome and highly fragrant. 
Having received information, that my baggage, which, to save 
land-carriage, I sent by the river, had arrived at Puerta Mac- 
connal de Ocana, three days’ journey from this place, I proceeded 
thither. I ascertained that the celebrated Bhgtelephas grew in 
that direction, and accordingly, one day after leaving Ocana, and 
on my w^ay to the Port, I found it at La Laguneta, a small 
settlement, and being told that I should no where else have such 
good opportunity of collecting it, I spent some days there. 
The Bhgtelephas, or Ivory-nut Palm, is dioecious, very graceful 
in aspect and producing 15-20 pinnate leaves, which, when 
full-grown, measure nearly twenty feet in length, and are of a 
delicate pale green colour. The nature of this Palm is to have 
little or no stem, its habit is not robust. In old specimens, the 
mid-rib of the leaves is flattened, but in young and fruit-bearing 
ones, it is round. The aspect of both sexes is the same. The 
male plant is distinguished by its spatha: the female plant 
* Begonia fuchdoides; lately published, with a figure, in the pages of our 
Botanical Magazine 
