144i THE NATURAL HISTOllT EEYIEW. 



six months to the exploration of the forests and paramos of its 

 huge volcano, and of the upper part of the valley of the Pastasa. 



In January, 1858, he removed to Ambato, which, for more than 

 two years was his point of departure for excursions to Quito, 

 Eiobamba, &c., and to various points in the eastern and western Cor- 

 dilleras of the Quitenian Andes, although his movements were much 

 harassed and restricted by the revolutionary state of the country 

 during nearly the whole of that period. In 1860 Dr. Spruce com- 

 municated a valuable paper to the Eoyal Geographical Society on 

 the mountains of Llanganati, in the eastern cordillera of the 

 Quitenian Andes (J.E.G-.S. for 1861, p. 163-84). He has also 

 communicated numerous important papers to the Linnean Society. 



In 1860 he was occupied for some months in procuring seeds and 

 plants of the Chinchona succirubra, or Red Bark plant, for cultivation 

 in India — a task which was confided to him by Mr. Clements 

 R. Markham, on behalf of Her Majesty's Government. Dr. Spruce 

 displayed great zeal and resolution in performing this arduous 

 service while suffering from the effects of rheumatic fever, and his 

 labours received the unqualified approbation of the Secretary of 

 State for India. His elaborate report on the expedition conducted 

 by him to procure these seeds and plants (accompanied by a meteor- 

 ological journal and a complete sketch of the vegetation of the 

 Chinchona forests) is by far the best that has appeared on this 

 subject in any language, and has been invaluable as a guide to the 

 cultivation of these precious plants in India. It covers 111 printed 

 pages. Afterwards, his broken health seeming to require a return to 

 a warm climate, he removed to the plain of Guayaquil ; and his active 

 labours as a botanist may be said to have closed with the picking 

 up of a few plants in that neighbourhood during the year 1861 and 

 during 1862 at Chanduy, on the coast, near Punta Santa Elena, where 

 an exceptional rainy season, coming after an interval of fifteen rainless 

 years, enabled him to make a small but interesting collection of the 

 ephemeral plants, which, under the influence of the rains, sprang up 

 on the desert, and also of several curious trees and shrubs, whose 

 blackened stems had not for some years past put forth even a leaf. 



The results of this long course of travel (the objects of which 

 were at first purely botanical) comprise from 6000 to 7000 species of 

 flowering plants and ferns, whereof a very large proportion were 

 entirely new to science, especially among the trees, of which the timber 

 and other products were also ascertained to be in many cases of great 



