OF THE (^UITENIAN ANDES. 18.^) 



dark ^and smoky, and so low that 1 could not stand erect. We 

 had happened on a windy time, and as the walls and roof were full 

 of chinks, the violent wind which got up at midnight starved us 

 beneath all our blankets and ponchos. After sunrise there was a 

 brief lull, and then it came on again to blow from the same quarter 

 (west, with a slight touch of northing) and so continued througli 

 the day. We had no rain during the five days of our stay, 

 although the storms on the farther side of Azuay often overlap as 

 far as Llalla, so that from Guataxi we could see it raining in this 

 hill-forest, when not a drop fell in the lower grounds ; and even 

 when it does not rain the forest is generally enveloped in mist. 

 This constant supply of moisture renders the vegetation more 

 vigorous than in the dry grounds below, and is the cause why the 

 trees are so thickly clad with mosses that it is difficult to push 

 one's way through them. Two mosses, whose long slender stems 

 hang down like a beard from the branches, bore here abundance 

 of fruit, which for two years I had sought in vain in other localities. 

 But I was most pleased to find a moss with large laciniato-ciliate 

 leaves — so novel a feature in this tribe, that I took it for a 

 PlagiocJiila, until I found the capsules nestling amongst the ter- 

 minal leaves. 



To return however to our Cascarillas, of which there are two 

 sorts in Llalla, the one called " Cuchi-cara," or Pig-skin, because 

 dried pieces of the bark resemble morsels of pig's-skin boiled and 

 then grilled (which is a favourite dish in Ecuador). The same 

 bark is sometimes called " Chauclia," a term implying thickness 

 without much consistence ; as, for example, in this bark, which 

 shrinks much in drying, and in a sort of large watery potato, 

 called " Chauchas." The other bark is called " Pata de gallinazo," 

 or Turkey-buzzard's foot ; it does not peel off freely like the other, 

 and when dried generally occurs in small split fragments, but as 

 it is rather deeper-coloured it is more esteemed than the Cuchi- 

 cara. The same, or similar kinds, are known in other districts as 

 " Cascarilla naranjada." The demand for either kind has of late 

 years been very slight, so that there has not been such destructiou 

 of these barks as of the red, and on a stony hill-side not far from 

 the hut I found above twenty large trees of the Cuchicara, from 

 40 to 50 feet high. All had fruited freely this year, but the cap- 

 sules were already empty, with the exception of one small corymb. 

 In the forest of Yalancay, on the opposite side of the river and 

 near the road leading from Alausi to Guayaquil, I afterwards found 

 a tree with recent fruit and even a few flowers. The latter are 



LIXN. PROC, — BOTA^TY. P 



