FLOEA AND FAUNA OF PERU. 299 



districts the mountain slopes seen from a distance assume a golden aspect from 

 the multitude of yellow marguerites. Vast spaces on the elevated plateaux are 

 occupied by the so-called pajonales, herbaceous tracts called also ichales, from the 

 prevailing ichit (herbs). Extensive stretches are also covered with resinous 

 shrubs called tolas (boccharis), a true type of sociable plants, while the giganton 

 cactus creeps up to the vicinity of the snows. According to Wolf, the upper limit 

 of forests and shrubs has diminished during the historic period, owing to the fires 

 kindled by the shepherds. 



Although not exclusively confined to this region, the coca {cnjthroxylon coca) 

 was first studied in Peru and Bolivia, and it is still chiefly gathered in the 

 Montana of Huanuco and Cuzco. After the native reports of its marvellous 

 properties had long been received with incredulity, the khokha, or " shrub" in a 

 pre-eminent sense, as the Aymaras call it, has at last found an honourable place 

 in the European pharmacopoeia. Its masticated leaf really allays hunger and 

 thirst for a certain time; it sustains the miner in his hard work beneath the 

 surface ; it helps the alpine climber to resist the baneful effects of mountain- 

 sickness ; and as a local anaesthetic possesses sovereign virtues. When crossiug 

 the Andes the Indian carriers always reckon their marches hy cocadas (aculiicos), so 

 many balls of coca, just as elsewhere the time is often measured by so many 

 " pipes." The effects of these doles, distributed at the stations to each carrier, are 

 usually felt for about 40 minutes, and a good day's march with a load of four 

 arrobes (100 pounds) is calculated at from six to eight cocadas. Agaiust pul- 

 monary affections the natives also employ the huamanripa {crypfocJuete andicola), a 

 plant of the snowy regions, scarcely yet known in European medicine. 



The Peruvian rubber, different from that of Brazil, is extracted from the 

 syphocoiupylm, a plant about 50 feet high, which contains a very large quantity of 

 milky sap. The liquid obtained by incision coagulates at contact with the sacha- 

 camote liana, and is formed into cakes of a greyish colour, which blacken on the 

 surface. A tree in its prime yields from 30 to 34 pounds, which is extracted for 

 about tenpence in the forest, and sold for from 40s. to 50s. on the Quito market. 

 The plant is always " bled to death," and its regular cultivation is said to be 

 impossible owing to the worms which attack it on the least incision and cause it 

 rapidly to decay. Saplings springing from the felled tree take some fifteen years 

 to arrive at maturity. 



Amongst the most remarkable species of the Amazonian woodlands is the 

 tamai caspi [pithecolobium samam — Ernst), the " rain- tree," which grows in the 

 neighbourhood of Moyobamba, and attains a height of 60 feet. It absorbs the 

 atmospheric moisture, especially in dry weather, in such quantities that the leaves 

 keep constantly dripping, changing the surrounding soil to mud. 



Fal'na. 



Like its flora, the Peruvian fauna corresponds with the climatic conditions. 

 Extremely diversified on the Montana, it is poor on the Pacific slope, and displays 



