1 90 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



town on foot ; and it is customary for both men 

 and women, when riding on horseback, to protect, 

 the face by a gauze veil from the sand, the 

 scorching sun, and the cold piercing wind. After 

 being exposed for some hours to this adverse com- 

 bination without such protection, the eyes become 

 bloodshot, the skin peels off the face, and the 

 nose becomes red and swollen, in which state it 

 is emphatically styled a " nariz tostada " (toasted 

 nose). I suppose I may have cast the skin of my 

 nose not fewer than ten times since I came to 

 Ambato. From this brief sketch of the climate 

 you will not be surprised to hear that acute 

 catarrhal complaints, influenza, spitting of blood, 

 etc., are frequent ; but they are very rarely fatal, 

 and I have not yet seen a single case of pulmonary 

 consumption ; and the climate on the whole must 

 be considered conducive to longevity. A country- 

 man of ours, Dr. Jervis, nephew of the first Earl 

 St. Vincent, died two or three years ago at Cuenca, 

 at the age of a hundred and fifteen. As fires are 

 used here only for cooking, the natives have no 

 calefacients beyond food, clothing, and solar heat, 

 and the latter is often considerable, although the 

 thermometer in the shade scarcely ever passes 65. 

 Very old people are sometimes put into a basket of 

 cotton and set in the sun, with a wide-brimmed hat 

 on their head. Then they remind me of newly- 

 hatched goslings I have seen similarly treated. 



It is but two days since I returned from Rio- 

 bamba, about 40 miles away to the south, where 

 I remained about four weeks, on a visit to my 

 countryman Dr. James Taylor, who has been in 



