219 
Other ferns were few, and common species. The mass of vegetation 
was similar to that in the moist forests of Yurimaguas, and the 
same Rubiacea with ternate leaves was frequent. There was also 
the large purple-flowered Nonatelia of Sao Paulo and Tarapoto. 
There happened to be no palms save a small Bactris, a Geonoma, 
and an Astrocaryum. 
The most remarkable plant noted was a Byttneriacea—a small 
tree with a slender unbranched trunk, 18 feet high, bearing fascicles 
of large red flowers near the base of the trunk and a few arge, 
alternate, stipulate, digitate leaves at the apex. [Probably a 
Herrania]. I saw but one plant, though perhaps the rain hindered 
me irom seeing more. Some curious terrestrial Gesnerae, several 
small-flowered Melastomaceae, nearly all of species unobserved before 
—chiefly Miconiae and Clidemiae. 
Vegetation of Bombonasa.—Near the mouth precisely the same as in 
the Pastasa. The Mulatto-tree (Enkylista spruceana, Benth.), Erio- 
dendron Samauma ? Homaliacea, Erythrina Amasisa, Pithecolobium, 
as frequent as on the Pastasa. oganiaceous twiner is especially 
abundant. The small-leaved Ingas are not so abundant. Phey ar 
in the Encafiadas (side-channels), as they always grow hanging far 
over, and into, the water, and we must necessarily go round them, 
instead of close by the margin, so that we had to oppose a stronger 
current. Their roots spread wide and intricate, and when the earth 
gives way beneath them (for they generally grow on the extreme 
edge of terra firma) they fall over, but still hang on, while the 
Cecropias and most other trees fall prostrate, and are at length 
carried away by the stream. _ 
Old trunks of the Chimbilla (Inga sp.) become hollow in the 
in them, by a small blackish bee which does not sting. In the 
Setikas (as Cecropias are called) two (and most likely more) species 
of small bee deposit wax and very little honey ; one of these makes 
abounds most on the Bombonasa ; the other makes white wax, but 
the whitest wax of all is obtained from the Chimbilla. 
carried away in a canoe to a convenient beach, where a fire is i. 
i ur 
The wax being extracted is melted down in pans, and then po 
off into calabashes, where the extraneous matter settles to the 
bottom, and the wax remains on the top. _ With two boilings the 
wax turns out very white and clear. This explains why the wax 
of Pastasa is in almost hemispherical masses ; on the Maraiion, 
Where large shallow vessels are used as moulds, it turns out 
in cakes, 
I saw the Governor of Andoas pay the Indians a cutlass for 
every 6 lbs, of this wax they should get out. These cutlasses cost 
six reals each in Tarapoto, which makes the prime cost of wax . 
real a Ib., or £58 6s. 8d. per ton; but then there is the labour an 
13192 B2 
