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64 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



their flowers and fruits, very few indeed have been 

 infested by caterpillars. A tall Leguminous (tree or 

 liana) or Bombaceous species would sometimes have 

 caterpillars on it ; more rarely a Laurel or a Nut- 

 meg ; but a Fig or a Guttifer never. A vast number 

 of trees and lianas of all sizes are, indeed, excluded 

 from serving as food to caterpillars by their strongly 

 resinous or else acrid and poisonous juices, and 

 many more on account of their hard, leathery leaves, 

 which are untouched except, rarely, by minute 

 caterpillars that eat themselves galleries in the 

 parenchyma. 



Of plants which afford food for caterpillars, 

 Leguminosae hold decidedly the first place ; next to 

 these rank Mallow-like plants (including Malvaceae 

 proper, Sterculiaceae, Biittneriaceae, and Tiliaceae) ; 

 then Melastomaceae and Solanaceae. Caterpillars 

 armed with stinging hairs seem peculiarly partial to 

 Leguminosse, as I know to my cost, the bushy Inga 

 trees in some parts being scarcely approachable 

 when with flowers and young leaves. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Guayaquil children that stray under the 

 Tamarind trees sometimes get severely stung by the 

 hairy caterpillars that drop on them from the trees. 



Other orders of plants on which I have en- 

 countered caterpillars are chiefly the following : 

 Among Endogens : Grasses, Sedges, Palms, and 

 Aroids on all rather rarely ; on Scitamineae and 

 Musaceae more frequently. Among Exogens : 

 Euphorbiaceae (principally on those with aromatic 

 foliage); Samydeae; Bixaceae; Vochysiaceae ; Sapin- 

 daceae (few) ; Malpighiaceae ; Anonaceae and Myris- 

 ticeae (rarely) ; Anacardiaceae ; Ochnacese (on very 

 young leaves only, the adult foliage being hard and 



