IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 275 



higher than I have elsewhere observed. We had four or five 

 species in our hut, none of them large, and one very minute 

 species which often damaged my fresh specimens of plants by 

 mutilating the flowers. It is so abundant at Camaron, 1000 

 feet lower down, that it fills the pease and barley meal and 

 renders them uneatable. Ants are far more frequent than in the 

 temperate region, but less so than in the plains. House flies are 

 as great a nuisance as at Ambato, and though fleas are not quite 

 so numerous as in the cool sandy highlands, there were yet plenty 

 of them (as the Spaniards say) "para el gasto." 



As above indicated, Limon was once entirely clad with forests, 

 in which respect it contrasts strongly with the valley of Alausi, 

 where the slopes on both sides are covered with grass, even down 

 to the hot region, and only the lateral valleys and the plateaux are 

 wooded. I cannot doubt that the difference arises from the 

 former being situated in the roots of a snowy mountain, while 

 there is no perpetual snow within a long distance of the latter. I 

 have observed the same difference, referable to the same cause, 

 along the eastern side of the Andes. After passing the valley of 

 San Antonio, to the southward, there is this intermixture of woods 

 and pajonales all the way to the frontier of Peru. As would 

 naturally be expected, the vegetation at Limon is far more 

 luxuriant, and the abundance of ferns, especially in the narrower 

 valleys, is in striking contrast to their scarcity at Puma-cocha. 

 Tree-ferns, of five species, are everywhere scattered in the forest, 

 and add a feature of beauty to the scenery quite wanting in the 

 valley of Alausi. 



1 estimate the average height of the virgin forest at Limon at 

 90 feet ; but, as everywhere else in the tropics, there are here and 

 there trees which stand out far above the mass of the forest. The 

 monarch of the forest at Limon is an Artocarpea, which, from the 

 leaves and from flowers picked up beneath the trees, I have little 

 hesitation in referring to Coussapoa. The following are the 

 dimensions of a tree of this species which I found prostrate in a 

 recent clearing. Length 120 feet, not including the terminal 

 branches, which had been lopped off, still 20 inches in circum- 

 ference, and which would have made it at least 20 feet more. 

 Circumference at 10 feet from the ground 12 feet 4 inches ; from 

 that point narrow buttresses were sent off to the ground on all 

 sides. At 25 feet the trunk was forked, and the ramification was 

 thenceforth dichotomous, at a narrow angle. 



No other tree reaches the dimensions of the Artocarpea. A 

 Lauracea, called Quebra-hacha (Break-axe), rises to no to 120 

 feet; its exceedingly hard wood is the usual material for the 

 cylinders of the trapiches. My collection contains unfortunately 

 very few of the larger trees. On the western slope of the 



