268 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



depth in some places of 10 feet, and so strait that the traveller, to 

 save his legs from being crushed, must needs throw them on his 

 horse's neck. Here and there a large stone sticks out, forming a 

 high step, in descending which there is risk of both horse and 

 rider turning a summerset. In the travesias there is a consider- 

 able depth of black tenacious greasy mould, worn by the equable 

 step of beasts of burden into transverse ridges (called camellones, 

 from their resemblance to the humps on a camel's back), with 

 alternating furrows from i to 3 feet deep. This mould is formed 

 in great part of the decayed leaves of the Suru, a bamboo 

 of the genus Chusquea, 1 which forms almost impenetrable thickets, 

 and whose arched stems and intricate branches, overhanging our 

 way, much impeded our progress. In such places there was still 

 a good deal of water and mud, for the rainy season was only just 

 over in the forest. 



At 6000 feet we lost the Wax palm (Ceroxylon andicola, H. et 

 B. ), which had accompanied us, though growing very sparsely, 

 from about the upper limit of the Hill Bark. It descends to the 

 same altitude on the eastern side of the Cordillera. Lower down, 

 palms began to be tolerably abundant, but of few species. . . . 



At a very little below 4000 feet we came out on the first 

 chacras at Limon, where I almost immediately noted, and with 

 no small satisfaction, a group of three Red Bark trees, each 

 consisting of from two to four stems of 30 feet high, springing 

 from old stools, and bearing a small quantity of fruit. We had 

 still about two miles of gentle descent to the trapiche (cane-mill) 

 destined for our habitation, and we reached it early in the after- 

 noon, in the midst of a dense fog. 



The trapiche stood on a narrow ridge running eastward 

 and westward, sloping gradually on the northern side to the 

 Chasuan, distant half a mile, and very abruptly, or 200 feet 

 perpendicular in about 300 yards, to a tributary rivulet on the 

 southern side. It was merely a long, low shed, and a sketch 

 of its internal arrangements may serve for that of all the other 

 trapiches, of which there were about a dozen at Limon. About 

 two-thirds of its length was occupied by the rude machinery and 

 adjuncts of the cane-mill. The remaining third had an upper 

 story with a flooring of bamboo planks, half of it open at the 

 sides, and the other half with a bamboo wall about 6 feet high, 

 not reaching the roof in any part of it. This was our dormitory, 

 and it was reached by a. ladder merely a tree trunk, with rude 

 notches for steps. On the ground floor was the kitchen, with a 

 wall of rough planks of raft-wood, placed by no means in juxta- 



1 The Chusquere are bamboos peculiar to the hills, with solid stems, rarely 

 exceeding 30 feet in height, and not preserving an erect position for more than 

 a few feet from the ground. 



