INTRODUCTION. 15 



tinted iron-clay soil is distinctly moist. The phe- 

 nomenon diminishes with the development of the 

 leaves, and ceases when they are fully grown." He 

 attributes the rain to secretion from glands on the 

 footstalk of the leaf, on which drops of liquid are 

 found, which are rapidly renewed on being removed 

 with blotting-paper. 



Another explanation, furnished by Dr. Spruce, the 

 South American traveller, appears to set the question 

 at rest.^ " The Tamia-caspi, or Rain-tree of the 

 Eastern Peruvian Andes is not a myth, but a fact, 

 although not exactly in the way popular rumour has 

 lately presented it. I first witnessed the phenomenon 

 in September, 1855, when residing at Tarapolo, a town, 

 or large village, a few days eastward of Moyobamba. 

 A little after seven o'clock we came under a lowish 

 spreading tree, from which, with a perfectly clear sky 

 overhead, a smart rain was falling. A glance upwards 

 showed a multitude of cicadas, sucking the juices of 

 the tender young branches and leaves, and squirting 

 forth slender streams of limpid fluid. My two 

 Peruvians were already familiar with the phenomenon, 

 and they knew very well that almost any tree, when 

 in a state to afford food to the nearly omnivorous 

 cicada, might become a Tamia-caspi, or Rain-tree. 



' " Kew Gardens Report for 1878," pp. 46, 47. 



