HALL’S EXCURSIONS. 329 
character with its landscape. M. Boussingault was tired of 
finding scarcely any thing but Trachytes betwixt Quito and 
Chimborazo. The few exceptions will be hereafter noticed. 
It is not easy to determine the native character of the 
Vegetation in a country long peopled and cultivated. The 
traveller is struck by the want of trees—an uncommon defi- 
ciency in South America—but it is natural to imagine the 
aboriginal forests have been long since destroyed, for the 
purposes of building and fuel. The thickets or copses which 
Cover the central regions of the mountains continue to 
Supply the latter; but timber of very indifferent quality 
must now be brought from a considerable distance. ‘The 
only forest-trees, scattered over the inhabited country, are 
the Capuli (Prunus salicifolia of Humboldt); the Arayan 
(14. No. 6,*) an elegant species of Willow, (Saliz Humboldti- 
ana?) and a tree, called by the Indians Quipua, the seeds 
of which have the smell of Juniper, found in the sandy 
plains round Ambato. Even of these few, the three former 
seem rather domesticated than indigenous. I never met 
With them in any uninhabited part of the country, and 
Wherever they appear they seem to have been planted for 
some purpose of utility or ornament. The fruit of the 
Capuli very much resembles a black cherry: the tree grows 
to a large size, and affords good timber of a reddish grain, 
though it is not sufficiently abundant to be an article of 
commerce. It is readily propagated in the driest and 
sandiest soils, and in two or three years affords both shade 
and fruit. The fruit of the Arayan is also eatable; the leaves 
when bruised have the fragrance of the Myrtle, (to which 
Natural Order it belongs,) but it is of slow growth, and diffi- 
_ cult increase, and is therefore comparatively scarce. The 
graceful spires of the Willow give a picturesque effect to 
ume e AR 
* These Nos. refer to the specimens of plants sent by Col. Hall to Dr. 
Hooker, and which will be published in the succeeding Nos. of this 
Journal. — Eg. 
Srconp Serizs. 2T 
