316 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



Von Thielmann's admiration of the marvelous vegetation and 

 grandeur of the Quindio was not dimmed by the trials of the trail, but 

 he became somewhat exasperated over the necessity of negotiating a 

 continual series of steep ascents and descents out of all proportion to 

 the actual distance accomplished forward at the end of a hard day's 

 going. His remark, "In what condition we finally arrived as night 

 closed in at the huts of Las Cruces, I will not try to describe", is 

 practically an echo of what Andre wrote concerning his arrival at the 

 same place. Von Thielmann records the gradual disappearance of 

 the wax palm and the "gnarled and parasitical growth" which is 

 characteristic of the region above them near the summit of tlie pass. 

 Since palms are generally found in the midst of, or bordering, luxuri- 

 ant vegetation, the fact that the dwarfed and misshapen woody 

 plants typical of timber line here almost immediately succeed the 

 upper limit of the distribution of the wax palms is but a further 

 evidence of their amazing vitality and extraordinary adaptation to 

 such a high altitude. Von Thielmann was interested to find that a 

 little wooden cross marked the crest of the Quindio and that each 

 peon, as he reaches the summit, contributes a small twig or branch to 

 the i)ile already near the cross — a custom observed on mountain passes 

 throughout the world. It is apparent that he made no independent 

 observations concerning the wax palms on the w^estern slope, since he 

 merely quotes Andre as to the existence of a second species. 



Both Von Thielmann and Andre wrote travel accounts. However, 

 to Andre must be given credit for the most complete information con- 

 cerning the Quindio wax palms presented by anyone up to the present 

 time. Andre was convinced that Humboldt confused two species; 

 nevertheless he continued to use the name C. andicola for the one on 

 the eastern slope and ventured to propose a new name, G. ferrugi- 

 neum, for the rough-fruited species, without later publishing a tech- 

 nical description. In the meantime, another botanical explorer had 

 given a new name to the wax palm of the eastern slope (Karsten, 

 Florae Columbiae, 1858). 



Hermann Karsten was a botanist of great renown — his plant dis- 

 coveries in South America rank, in many respects, as importantly as 

 do Humboldt's. It was Karsten who discovered three new species of 

 wax palms in widely separated regions of the Andes — the first intima- 

 tion of the extensive range of this group of palms hitherto repre- 

 sented by Humboldt's single species. In addition, he described and 

 launched a new name for the tall species on the eastern slope of the 

 Quindio (pi. 4, left). All of Karsten's palms, although differing in 

 minor details, were similar in the more important botanical charac- 

 ters; that is, there were several (up to 5) .pathes, orange-red fruits, 

 and an agreement in the diagnostic leatures of the flowers and 



