OF THE QUITENIA?? ANDES. 185 



liaviiig 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 Rubiacece. 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 eifected, 

 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. 



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 3000 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 lbs. 

 weight of the roots from a single plant ; whereas in Brazil the 

 greatest yield I have heard quoted was a little over 30 lbs. The 

 Puma-cocha species has a round stem and few prickles, while that 



