264 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



Pastasa in which I saw, not without surprise, a bed of the large- 

 leaved Rumex, which is frequent in similar situations, at from 

 8000 to 9000 feet. The Arenal consists of sand and fine gravel 

 of a pale yellow colour. In one place the road, for a considerable 

 distance, resembles a broad, smooth gravel-walk in England, so 

 that the only bit of really good road in Ecuador has been made 

 by nature's hand on the crest of the Andes. The vegetation is 

 limited to scattered tufts, or rather hillocks, of a Valeriana, a 

 Viola, an Achyrophorus, a Werneria, a Plantago, a Geranium, a 

 a pretty silky-leaved Astragalus, and the elegant Sicfa 

 is, all of which (save the Astragalus) have rigid leaves 

 in the characteristic rosettes of super-alpine vegetation, and send 

 enormously thick roots deep down into the loose soil, although 

 even these do not secure them from being frequently torn up by 

 the violent winds and storms that sweep over them. My attention 

 w r as so much taken up with these interesting plants, and with the 

 immense mass of snow on our right, and in tracing the downward 

 course of ancient lava-streams, which are as visible on Chimborazo 

 as on Cotopaxi and Tunguragua, that I scarcely felt the wind, 

 which swept us along like a gale at sea, and occasionally lifted 

 small fragments of gravel and hurled them at us. It is scarcely 

 necessary to state that the wind is here always easterly through 

 the day, getting up strong generally about 10 A.M., and rarely con- 

 tinuing to blow with equal force through the night and following 

 morning. Now and then it veers for a moment, and gives the 

 traveller a side blow, which, were he not wary, might unhorse 

 him. 



\Ve had left winter behind us on the eastern side of the Cor- 

 dillera, and on our first day's journey, as we looked down the 

 deep valley of the Pastasa, we saw a mantle of dense cloud and 

 rain spread over the forest of Canelos. Even the eastern side of 

 Sanancajas was wet and muddy, but after passing Chuquipogyo 

 the road became nearly dry, and, on the western side of the 

 Cordillera, it was even inconveniently dusty. In the direction of 

 the Pacific not a cloud was visible, though the great distance and 

 the hazy horizon prevented our actually seeing the ocean. So 

 abrupt is the transition from the rainy season, which prevails on 

 the eastern side of the Cordillera simultaneously with the dry- 

 season on the western. 



The Arenal must be near a league across. As we descended 

 from it the whole mountain side became covered with flowers, and 

 nowhere have I seen alpine vegetation in such perfect state. 

 Gcntiana ccniua, with its large pendulous red flowers, formed 

 large patches, and was accompanied by three other species of the 

 same genus, with purple and blue flowers, by Drabas, and other 

 alpines. Still descending, the true alpines began to be mixed 

 with half shrubby Fuchsia;, Calceolaria?, Eupatoria, etc. Even 



