276 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



Quitonian Andes there is a great burst of blossom at the com- 

 mencement of the dry season, that is, towards the end of May : 

 and another of less extent after the rains of the autumnal equinox ; 

 so that, as my visit fell between those two epochs, many of the 

 trees were in the same unsatisfactory state as the Hill Bark already 

 mentioned, and others had not yet begun to flower. Besides, I 

 should hardly, under any circumstances, have been at the trouble 

 of cutting down a large tree for the sake of only two or three 

 specimens ; and, after we began to prepare the Bark plants, the 

 Indians could hardly be spared for any other service. 



In proceeding to give a classified list of the plants collected 

 and observed, I shall generally limit myself to indicating their 

 natural order. In order that my attention might not be called 

 away from the main object of the enterprise, I collected very few 

 (often unique) specimens of each plant. . . . The general char- 

 acter of the vegetation may, however, be sketched very intelligibly 

 with very little reference to species. 



[The following account of the vegetation of the 

 Red Bark forests has been reduced by the omission 

 of all passages not directly bearing on the subject, 

 or dealing only with botanical details. It is, how- 

 ever, so full of information on points of geographical 

 distribution and of examples of unusual plant- 

 structure, and also contains so many short descrip- 

 tions of strange or beautiful flowers still unknown 

 to our horticulturists, as to make it both interesting 

 and instructive to all who study or appreciate the 

 beauty and variety of the vegetation of tropical 

 regions. It is therefore, with these exceptions, 

 printed entire.] 



SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION OF THE RED BARK 

 FORESTS OF CHIMBORAZO (alt. 2000 to 5000 feet) 



Graminece, 4. 1 A good many species of this order were 

 observed, but, as is mostly the case in the dry season, nearly all 

 partially dried up and out of flower ; besides that, even in the 



1 The number affixed to most of the orders indicates how many species of 

 that order I gathered in a perfect state. 



