344 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



of them are so interesting, and have such a close 

 relation to his work in South America, that I give 

 here some extracts from them, adding a few ex- 

 planatory words where necessary. 



The first is from one written about six months 

 after his return home, and is characteristic of his 

 intense love of nature.] 



KEW, Dec. 20, 1864. 



I am thankful we are so near the shortest day. 

 It is an awful sight to me to see that the sun at 

 noon barely rises as high as the weathercock on 

 Kew Church steeple (seen from the opposite side 

 of the green) and the poor skeletons of trees ! 

 I have not seen trees without leaves for more than 

 fifteen years. 



[This was specially interesting to myself because, 

 on my return from the Amazon in October 1852, 

 I was at once struck by two things the general 

 smallness of the trees, and even more by the low 

 sun at noon, and especially by the fact of its giving 

 hardly any heat, so that it seemed most surprising 

 how any vegetation could continue to grow and 

 thrive under such harsh conditions. 



Although Spruce had made Ambato his head- 

 quarters for nearly three years, I have found in none 

 of his letters any reference to what accommodation he 

 had there or to the people he lived with, except the 

 one remark (in a letter to his friend Teasdale) that 

 his landlord there was "one of the best men in 

 the place." But as he was often away collecting 

 at Banos, Quito, Riobamba, and other places, as 

 well as in the forests around Tunguragua and the 



