Chap. XV. SCARCITY OF VALUABLE PLANTS. 259 



penetrated into the recesses of the cavern. While I gazed on 

 this lovely scene, the plaintive mournful notes of the little 

 " Alma perdida " reached me from the boughs of the great 

 tree. This is a small bird of the finch tribe, of which there 

 are two kinds, one black, the otlier chesnut with black 

 wings. Their loud clear note is peculiarly sad. Such peeps 

 as these into the secret beauties of the innermost forest 

 recesses are rewards for many hours of toil and disappoint- 

 ment. 



Late in the evening I returned to the tent dead tired, sod- 

 den and wet to the skin, covered with moss and fungus, bitten 

 all over by mosquitos, stung by a hornet, and with hands 

 sliced in pieces by the sharp blades of a Panicum called chalU- 

 challi, but with only three plants of the valuable variety of 

 C, ovata. It is most provoking that only the seedlings of all 

 the worthless species of Chinchonaj should be in great abun- 

 dance ; the reason is of course connected with the general 

 felling of the trees of valuable species by the cascarilleros, 

 years ago. 



There was little rain during the night, and on May 6th we 

 commenced the search of a range of forest on the south-west 

 side of the Yana-mayu ravine, where we found a large supply 

 of plants of C. Calisaya. At a height of 500 feet above the 

 river there was a ridge of rock jutting out from the forest- 

 covered sides of the ravine. In this spot the groimd was not 

 nearly so thickly covered with vegetation ; there were no 

 palms, tree-ferns, or plants requiring extreme moisture, and 

 young plants received shade from taller trees, while they also 

 enjoyed plenty of sunshine through the spreading branches. 

 The most abundant plants were Melastomas, huaturus, and 

 Panica, which climb amongst the branches to a height of 

 thirty feet and upwards. These afford but very slight shade, 

 and below there is an undergrowth of ferns, Colocasi(e, and 

 young plants. In different parts of this ridge we collected 124 



s 2 



