228 CHINCHONA-PLANTS FIRST SEEN. Chap. XIIT. 



tains ; and Asalay, a coffee estate, with groves of orange and 

 cliirimoya-trees, the extreme point reached by M. Hasskarl, 

 the Dutch collector, in 1854. At the confluence of the rivers 

 Asalay and Sandia perpendicular cliffs rise abruptly from the 

 valley to a stupendous height on both sides, and the path 

 winds up in a serpentine slippery staircase, to creep along the 

 edge of the steep grassy slopes or paj'onales, far above the 

 tropical vegetation of the ravine. Winding along this path, 

 we came to the tambo of Paccay-samana, on the grassy 

 pajonal, the mountains rising up on the opposite side of the 

 ravine only about sixty yards distant ; yet the river, in the 

 bottom of the gorge, was many hundreds of feet below. There 

 were thickets with masses of bright flowers in the gullies, 

 and glorious cascades shimmering in the sunlight on the 

 opposite mountain-sides. 



It was at this spot that we first encountered chinchona- 

 plants. A number of young plants of O. Calisaya, var. /3 

 JosephiaTia, were growing by the side of the road, with their 

 exquisite roseate flowers, and rich green leaves with crimson 

 veins. The rock is a metamorphic slate, unfossiliferous, 

 slightly micaceous, and ferruginous, with quartz occurring 

 here and there : the soil a stiff brown loam. Above the 

 tambo there was a small thicket of gaultherias, called ccarani 

 in Quichua, and Melastomaceae with bright pm-ple flowers 

 (Lasiandra fontanesiana), in a shallow gully, surrounded by 

 the rich broad-bladed grass of the pajonal. Here there were 

 some fine plants of the chinchona named by Dr. Weddell 

 C. Caravayensis ; and fiu'ther on more plants of C. Josephiana, 

 called ychu cascarilla by the natives. The height of this 

 spot is 5420 feet above the sea. A tree-fern and many 

 Tnchomanes were growing with the chinchonae. Paccay- 

 samana is sixteen miles from Sandia. 



Animal life did not appear to be very abundant. There 

 were plenty of large doves, some ducks near the river, and 



