422 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



7000 to 9000 feet elevation, and the species are 

 trees of humble growth, bearing large yellowish- 

 green edible drupes known as Ciruelas de fraile 

 (Friar's plums). In cultivation the fruits are mostly 

 seedless, and in that state are sometimes brought 

 for sale to Ambato and other towns. The seed 

 is described in books as poisonous, and if it be 

 really so, then it is the only instance, so far as I 

 know, of the existence of any hurtful principle in 

 the entire family of Malpighiads, always excepting 

 that of the Caapi. Yet strong poisons may lurk 

 undiscovered in many others of the order, which is 

 very large, and (the twining species especially) of 

 great sameness of aspect ; and the closely -allied 

 Soapworts (Sapindaceae) contain strong narcotic 

 poisons, especially in the genus Paullinia. 



I obtained a good many pieces of stem, dried 

 them carefully, and packed them in a large box, 

 which contained botanical specimens, and dispatched 

 them down the river for England in March 1853. 

 The man who took that box and four others on 

 freight, in a large new boat he had built on the 

 Uaupes, was seized for debt when about half-way 

 down the Rio Negro, and his boat and all its con- 

 tents confiscated. My boxes were thrown aside in 

 a hut, with only the damp earth for floor, and re- 

 mained there many months, when my friend Senhor 

 Henrique Antonij, of Manaos, whom I had advised 

 by letter of the sending-off of the boxes, heard of 

 the mishap, and succeeded in redeeming them and 

 getting them sent on to the port of Para. When 

 Mr. Bentham came to open them in England, he 

 found the contents somewhat injured by damp and 

 mould, and the sheets of specimens near the bottom 



