262 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



The Bark grounds, which still continue to be worked, form 

 part of five contiguous farms, called respectively El Morado, 

 Matiavi, Si'nchig, Talagua, and Salinas, whereof the two former 

 belong to the church of Guaranda, and the three latter (which 

 extend upwards to the paramos of Chimborazo and downwards 

 to the plain of Guayaquil) are the property of General and ex- 

 President Juan Jose Floras, who, after a banishment of fifteen 

 years, has lately returned to take the chief part in the recovery of 

 Guayaquil from a faction who would have given it up to Peru. 

 Only the high lands of those farms, where there is natural pastur- 

 age and ground suitable for the cultivation of potatoes and cereals, 

 have been turned to any account by the proprietors. The middle 

 part is dense, unbroken forest, and in the lower part, which pro- 

 duces the Red Bark, a good many poor people of mixed race from 

 the sierra, and a few liberated slaves from the plain, have formed 

 little cane-farms, without asking leave of the owners or paying 

 any rent. The farms belonging to General Flores have been for 

 some years leased to a Senor Cordovez, who resides at Ambato ; 

 and Dr. Francisco Neyra, notary public of Guaranda, rents the 

 farms of the church, but only so far as respects the bark they 

 produce. With these two gentlemen I had, therefore, to treat 

 for permission to take from the bark woods the seeds and plants 

 I wanted. At first they w r ere unwilling to grant me it at any price, 

 but, after a good deal of parley, I succeeded in making a treaty 

 with them, 'whereby, on the payment of 400 dollars, I was allowed 

 to take as many seeds and plants as I liked, so long as I did not 

 touch the bark. They also bound themselves to aid me in pro- 

 curing the necessary workmen and beasts of burden. Through 

 the intervention of Dr. Neyra, who has throughout done all he 

 could to favour the enterprise, I engaged with his cascarilleros 

 (who all inhabit the village of Guanujo, adjacent to Guaranda) 

 that whilst they were procuring bark for him, they should also 

 seek seeds and plants for me. 



From Dr. Neyra I ascertained that a site called Limon would 

 be the most suitable for the centre of my operations. ... At 

 Limon existed formerly the finest manchon of Red Bark ever 

 seen. It was all cut down many years ago, but I was informed 

 that shoots from the old roots had already grown to be stout little 

 trees, large enough to bear flowers and fruit, and that the squatters 

 (who are many of them cascarilleros of Guanujo), since they got 

 to know the value of the bark, had carefully preserved such trees 

 as were standing in their chacras or clearings. Messrs. Cordovez 

 and Neyra have made their depot for the bark about four leagues 

 lower down the valley, where a stream called Camaron, running 

 down the next transversal valley to the northward, joins the 

 Chasuan. 



The intestine war still continued to rage, and the country was 



