294 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



Ventanas (which appears so short on the map) had 

 taken him thirteen days to travel. He finally 

 reached Limon on the 2/th of July, looking pale 

 and thin from his recent illness and from the 

 sleepless nights passed on the river, but anxious to 

 set to work immediately. We had no young 

 plants for him, nor any expectation of obtaining 

 them, but I was satisfied that cuttings \vould 

 succeed, although it would necessarily be a tedious 

 process to root them well. The owner of the 

 chacra of Oso-cahuitu showed me some sprigs, cut 

 from an old stool of Red Bark, which he had stuck 

 into the ground by a watercourse four months pre- 

 viously, and they had all rooted well. Mr. Cross 

 also agreed with me that the success of the process 

 was certain, and that the question was merely one 

 of time, which only experience could solve. After 

 reposing the following day (Sunday), we had a 

 piece of ground fenced in, and Mr. Cross made a 

 pit, and prepared the soil to receive the cuttings, 

 of which he put in above a thousand on the ist of 

 August and following days. He afterwards put in 

 a great many more, subjecting them to various 

 modes of treatment ; and he went round to all the 

 old stools, and put in as many layers from them as 

 possible ; but only those who have attempted to do 

 anything in the forest, possessing scarcely any of 

 the necessary appliances, and obliged to supply 

 them as far as possible from the forest itself, can 

 have any idea of the difficulties to be surmounted. 

 Glass was the only thing for which we could find 

 no substitute, and to get up to Limon the glasses 

 of the Wardian cases w r as not to be thought of, 

 over roads so narrow and rough, where even the 



