348 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



that, leading with us a simple and peaceful life, we 

 may end our days together. 



With this I await your reply, desiring that it 

 may find you well. Your truest heart-friend sighs 

 to see and to embrace you. 



MANUEL SANTANDER. 



Addition. If convenient to you, and you con- 

 sider that Pachito might be useful to you, and you 

 will tell me how he may get there, I will give him 

 to you, Senor Ricardo, that he may serve you as a 

 companion and assist you in something. 



(So endeth the epistle according to Santander. ) 



R. S. ' 



[Nearly two years later, in a letter to Mr. Daniel 

 H anbury from Welburn (dated December 31, 1868), 

 we have the conclusion of the long story of the 

 repeated efforts to get flowers and fruits of the 

 much-desired Canelo or Cinnamon tree of Quito. 

 This tree and its spicy bark were known to the 

 Spanish conquerors of Peru and Ecuador, and 

 has been an article of commerce ever since ; the 

 great forest of Canelos was so named after it ; 

 many travellers and botanists have traversed this 

 forest, including the enthusiastic Richard Spruce, 

 yet no one had yet been able to obtain or even to 

 see its flowers or fruit. Some of the causes of this 

 failure are indicated in a letter from Santander, 

 dated " Ambato, November 12, 1868." He therein 

 describes the extraordinary series of accidents and 

 misfortunes which made all his efforts of no avail ; 

 and as it also serves to illustrate further the 



