200 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



Quito, where they are obliged to be during the 

 three months the Congress is sitting. Mr. White 

 is a man of middle age. In his younger days he 

 has been United States Consul at Hamburg and 

 other ports in the north of Europe, and he has 

 travelled also in England and France. Afterwards 

 he was for some years Navy Agent on the coast of 

 Peru and Chile ; so that he is a man with more 

 cosmopolitan sympathies and fewer local prejudices 

 than many of his countrymen. Like many diplo- 

 matic gentlemen, he is apt to run into long-windecl 

 dissertations, not remarkable for either depth or 

 brilliancy ; and, at the same time, he is a very 

 amiable, sound-hearted man. Mrs. White is a very 

 friendly, chatty lady, who gets all her dresses out 

 from New York, in the latest style of fashion, to 

 the admiration and envy of the belles of Ambato. 

 I often step into Mr. \Vhite's of an evening, just 

 as I used to do into yours, when in England. We 

 have, however, no chess-playing, and, instead, we 

 rail against the people of the country after the 

 fashion of foreigners in all countries and I listen 

 patiently to Mr. White's lectures on political 

 aspects and complications. 



To Mr. George Bentliaui 







AMBATO, March 16, 1858. 



As I mentioned in my last letter, my labours at 

 Barios were terminated sooner than I wished in 

 consequence of having filled all my paper ; and this 

 was the more provoking because just at that time 

 there were more trees in flower than at any other. 



