of an Orchid Hunter, 



145 



suffered very much from the cold. Almost the only 

 vegetation found here is a large Edelweiss, which 

 covers acres of the top of the Paramo; it is a plant 

 growing about a yard high, the leaves, stems, and 

 flowers being entirely enveloped in a woolly substance, 

 probably to protect it from the cold. The other 

 vegetation at this altitude is scarcely worth a name. 

 Sometimes hail falls in large quantities, and nothing 

 seems to give much result under cultivation except 

 potatoes ; of these the natives grow enough for their 

 subsistence from one season to another. 



My first night, passed at a height of twelve 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea, was miser- 

 able enough, on account of the cold and the swarms 

 of vermin. I was glad to get away early in the 

 morning, although I had every reason to be grateful 

 to the hospitable Indians, who, knowing that our pro- 

 visions were lost on the wav, £ave us largely of their 

 own little resources. In various parts of the Paramo 

 I met with three birds which I was surprised to find : 

 the first a tiny humming-bird, Steganura Underwoodii, 

 with the feet enveloped in tufts of white down, like 

 miniature stockings, and two fine feathers in the tail 

 longer than the rest, which finish by widening out at 

 the end into a piece about the size of a silver three- 

 pence. The second was a humming-bird usually met 

 with in the lower lands feeding on the flowers of the 



K 



