Popenoe: The Native Home of the Cherimoya 



333 



DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL 



Having a deep interest in this tree — 

 an interest which extended to the 

 question of its native home — I was 

 stimulated by Wolf's note to undertake 

 a trip into the region mentioned. This 

 involved a month's time and not a few 

 hardships, for southern Ecuador is one 

 of the most remote and inaccessible 

 regions on the Pacific side of South 

 America. It may be entered by one of 

 two routes: from Guayaquil by water 

 to Santa Rosa, and thence across the 

 mountains on muleback; or from Hui- 

 gra (on the Guayaquil and Quito 

 Railroad) by muleback through Cuenca 

 and Loja. By either route one has an 

 overland journey of five or six days 

 before reaching Loja, the town nearest 

 the region in which the cherimoya is 

 found. I chose the southern route, — 

 that by Santa Rosa. Leaving this 

 village, I rode with the overland mail 

 to an American mine at Portovelo, near 

 Zaruma. This trail is notorious 

 throughout Ecuador, and has been so 

 since Wolf's day (the late eighties). 

 After leaving the coastal plain and 

 beginning the ascent of the first range 

 of the Andes, it is the vilest, save one, 

 which I have ever traveled. During the 

 long rainy season the mule-trains work 

 it into a series of horizontal ridges and 

 intervening ditches filled with water: 

 these are called camellones, and are, 

 evidently, the product of that peculiar 

 instinct which leads a mule to step 

 always in the tracks of his predecessor. 



Those few American naturalists who 

 have traveled in Ecuador recently 

 will bear me out when I say that Porto- 

 v'elo is the one oasis in a vast desert of 

 muddy roads, poor food, and bad 

 sleeping accommodations. From here 

 I traveled four days more to Loja, being 

 forced to make a long detour because of 

 the bridge across the river at Portovelo 

 having been carried away by high 

 water. Nowhere along this route can 

 one obtain a decent place to sleep, and 

 it is difficult, even, to obtain so much 

 food as a couple of eggs or a few bits of 

 yuca (cassava). The wise traveler 

 will, therefore, leave Portovelo with 

 his saddlebags well stocked. 



IN SEARCH OF THE WILD CHERIMOYA 



Once in Loja, I made the acquain- 

 tance of Enrique Witt, who told me 

 that the cherimoya groves mentioned 

 by Wolf had been largely destroyed in 

 recent years, but that there were in the 

 same general region numerous others, 

 the best of which were perhaps those 

 of La Capilla. I therefore struck off 

 toward the south, soon finding myself 

 in a country as desolate and lonely as 

 any I have ever visited. Far ahead, 

 across the distant mountains, lay Peru, 

 and, much nearer, the valley of the Rio 

 Catamayo. After a short day's ride, I 

 reached the small farm known as La 

 Capilla, swung my hammock between 

 the rafters of the house, begged the 

 loan of the kitchen fire to prepare my- 

 self a bowl of pea soup, and prepared to 

 spend the next day among the chiri- 

 moyales, as the cherimoya thickets are 

 here called. Before reaching this spot, 

 I had seen along the roadside many 

 scattered trees of this species, and a few 

 small clumps of them. I began to feel, 

 therefore, that I was at last to see the 

 cherimoya on its native heath. How, I 

 asked myself, will the fruits of these 

 trees compare with those of our culti- 

 vated cherimoyas? This was the ques- 

 tion which most interested me. The 

 cultivated cherimoyas have had the 

 benefit of more or less conscious selec- 

 tion extending over a period of at least 

 two centuries. Will there, I continued, 

 be any visible differences between the 

 fruits of these wild trees and those of 

 our cultivated ones? 



In a canyon near La Capilla — and 

 later elsewhere in the same general 

 region — I came upon many groves of 

 cherimoyas, growing under conditions 

 which left no doubt in my mind as to 

 the indigenous character of the species. 

 Here we have a district very sparsely 

 peopled, with few routes of travel, in 

 which the cherimoya occurs profusely 

 in nearly all of the quehradas, or small 

 canyons. It seems incredible that it 

 should be an escape, for the trees are 

 vastly more numerous than I have ever 

 seen them in Central America, and in 

 addition, they are not limited to the vi- 

 cinity of roads or trails as in the latter. 



