122 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



ceeded to the inontaiia region known as the " Chanchamayo," from 

 the river of that name. Strangely, this 48-mile auto ride from Tarma 

 to La Merced provided one of the greatest thrills of the trip. The total 

 descent is about 7,700 feet, the greater part of this coming within a 

 very few miles, where the highway descends in a series of S-curves 

 from the top to the bottom of the Tarma valley. The road is scarcely 

 wider than the car and one-way traffic is maintained, passage going 

 up and down on alternate days. With their inherent love of excite- 

 ment the native drivers make little use of brakes, the car swerving 

 around curves with the out wdieels almost in the air, brushing against 

 jutting cliffs, and shooting through tunnels. To meet a cow, strayed 

 from her hillside pasture to the road, or a mule caravan proceeding 

 in the wrong direction is embarrassing, to say the least. Obviously 

 it was impossible to collect many plants en route, Init later we returned 

 to two especially inviting localities, Carpapata, where we were the 

 guests of Mr. A. D. Bryant, of the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corpora- 

 tion, and Huacapistana, a locality made famous botanically by the 

 collections of Dr. Weberbauer, the distinguished botanist of I^ima. 



In the Chanchamayo, collections were made from three principal 

 bases : La Merced, the hacienda of Seiior Carlos Schunke above San 

 Ramon, and the Perene Colony, where we were entertained for two 

 weeks by Seiior Victor Valleriestra. For much of the success of the 

 trip we are indebted to such hospitable Peruvians as Sefior Garcia, 

 Seiior Valleriestra of Tarma, and to the government officials at 

 Lima, and tO' the prefects and subprefects of the departments and 

 provinces visited. 



The Perene Colony is at the end of the auto road, and from here 

 into the montana travel is solely by mule trail, river, and air. Mr. 

 Smith and I started over the fainous Pichis trail June 28, our caravan 

 including eight cargo mules. The trail reaches a height of some 6,000 

 feet, and for the entire distance there is a succession of changing types 

 of vegetation. At intervals of 20 to 35 kilometers, a day's travel, very 

 satisfactory tambos (as the small inns are called) are located, and 

 whenever we came to one of these in a region of special botanical 

 interest we would delay a day and make as large collections as pos- 

 sible. Of unusual interest was an open sphagnum bog, much resem- 

 bling those of northern regions, where terrestrial orchids were abun- 

 dant and where we found a familiar plant, our common cinnamon fern. 

 At one of these taml)os, a flimsy-looking house made of palm trunks 

 and thatched palm leaves, we had our only serious misadventure of the 

 entire trip. Our presses slung over kerosene burners caught fire, and 



