BOTANICAL NOTES. 655 
Some particular localities seem remarkably well suited for 
the development of these plants; nor do I any where recol- 
lect seeing so rich an assemblage of them as on the Paramo 
of Saraguro, bordering on the Province of Loxa. It was on 
this interesting spot, the soil of which is a dark ferruginous 
clay, that I found the very curious and rare Gaultheria lani- 
gera, associated with some of the choicest productions of the 
vegetable kingdom, and which no garden can produce. 1 
allude particularly to those elegant shrubby Befarie, pro- 
fusely distributed over the flat table land, and diffusing, far 
and wide, a glow of the richest purple; intermingled with 
copses of Z'hibaudias and Vacciniums, on which hangs the 
Eccremocarpus longiflorus (No. 186), supported by its long 
tendrils. I did not observe any Gentians, which I suppose 
to be owing to the moderate elevation of the paramo, scarcely 
10,000 feet above the coast. 
The TAibaudie occur principally on the forest-crowned 
mountain ridges that flank the western Andes, from 7,800 
to 10,000 feet above the Pacific. There is one species, par- 
ticularly fine, distinguished by its large fleshy tubular flowers, 
of the purest white, tipt with crimson. Thibaudia acuminata 
(No. 166), grows on the table land of Quito. 
I subjoin a list of shrubs, which will serve to illustrate the 
general features of the vegetation of the Andes, immediately 
above the limit of the cultivated lands. The eastern chain, 
on the side facing the intermediate inhabited valley, presents 
a zone of shrubs in every respect similar. 
Hypericum laricifolium No. 133  Rhexia . : No. 
Barnadesia spinosa . : 205 Melastoma . «999 
Berberis . . i= Tor 
Lobelia . : = . : — . . 182 
Fuchsia triphylla — . . 31 Buddleja . š E 23 
Thibaudiaacuminata . . 166 toy 24 
Escallonia myrtillóides — . Baccharis odorata . 244 
Osteomeles ferruginea on M (o. — AIME 
Mess . =. . —— 15$ Comiposita” —. o 
Citharoxylon ilicifolium — . 178 Ribs . Po ETE - 
Eupatorium glutinosum — . 2316 Psoralea s < (0v 
JAF 
