2 ;o NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



provoking, for the seeds were far from ripe, and all the rest might 

 be destroyed in the same way, so I immediately went round to 

 the inhabitants and informed them that the seeds would be of no 

 value to me unless I gathered them myself; and I offered a 

 gratuity to the owners of the chacras where there were trees in 

 fruit to allow no one to approach the trees except myself and Dr. 

 Taylor. This had the desired effect, and I do not think a single 

 capsule was molested afterwards. 



Whilst Dr. Taylor was at Yentanas, the troops of the Pro- 

 visional Government of Quito began to march down from the 

 Sierra to attack the forces which held the low country, and they 

 selected the route by Limon and Ventanas, along which an army 

 had never been known to pass. For six weeks we were kept in 

 continual alarm by the passing of troops, and it needed all our 

 vigilance to prevent our horses and goods being stolen ; indeed, 

 one of my horses was carried off, though I afterwards recovered 

 it. It was now clear that, unless there had been two of us, both 

 independent of the political feuds of the country, the enterprise 

 must have fallen through. All our provisions had to be procured 

 from Guaranda, and, as they soon deteriorated in a moist, warm 

 climate, whenever our stock got low Dr. Taylor had to take my 

 horses and an Indian and go all the long distance to Guaranda to 

 fetch more. . . . About half a day's journey down the valley 

 there were a good many plantains on a deserted farm, and at 

 twice the distance a negro had a fine plantation of them, from 

 which I two or three times got up a mule-load; but the hungry 

 soldiery soon made an end of them, and then even that resource 

 was cut off. 



The view from Limon takes in a vast extent of country, both 

 upwards and downwards, and the whole is unbroken forest, save 

 towards the source of the Chasuan, where a lofty ridge rises above 

 the region of arborescent vegetation and is crowned by a small 

 breadth of grassy paramo. Nowhere are there any bare precipices, 

 and a very steep declivity forming an angle of 60 with the 

 horizon, appearing far away up the Chasuan, is as densely wooded 

 as any other part. The opening at Limon, it will be understood, 

 is purely artificial. 



The crystalline waters of the Chasuan and its tributaries, in 

 that part of their course where the Red Bark grows, run over a 

 black or dull blue, shining, and very compact trachyte, which 

 would seem to be the foundation of the Quitonian Andes, for it 

 appears almost everywhere in the lower valleys, on both the eastern 

 and western declivities. In the river Pastasa it occurs at from 

 3000 up to 7000 feet. Generally it is exposed to view only in the 

 bed of the streams, or on their banks, where it often rises into 

 rugged and fantastic cliffs. Over the trachyte at Limon there is 



