100 ■ The Andes and the Ajviazon. 



Confining our attention to the Quito Valley, we remark 

 that the whole region from Pichincha to Chimborazo is as 

 treeless as Palestine. The densest forest is near Banos. 

 The most common tree is the " Aliso" (Betula acuminata). 

 "Walnut is the best timber. There are no pines or oaks.* 

 The slopes of the mountains, between twelve and fifteen 

 thousand feet, are clothed with a shrub peculiar to the high 

 altitudes of the Andes, called Chuquiragua. This is a very 

 valuable shrub ; the twigs are used for fuel, and the yellow 

 buds as a febrifuge. The castor-oil-tree grows naturally 

 by the road side, sometimes to the height of twelve feet. 



A very useful as well as the most ordinary plant in the 

 valley is the American aloe, or " Century Plant." f It is the 

 largest of all herbs. Not naturally social, it imparts a mel- 

 ancholy character to the landscape as it rises solitary out of 

 the arid plain. Most of the roads are fenced vtdth aloe 

 hedges. While the majority of tropical trees have naked 

 stems with a crown of leaves on the top, the aloe reverses 

 this, and looks like a great chandelier as its tall peduncle, 

 bearing greenish-yellow flowers, rises out of a graceful clus- 

 ter of long, thick, fleshy leaves. Wlien cultivated, the aloe 

 flowers in much less time than a century ; but, exhausted 

 by the efflorescence, it soon dies. Nearly every part serves 

 some purpose ; the broad leaves are used by the poorer 

 class instead of paper in writing, or for thatching their 

 huts ; sirup flows out of the leaves when tapped, and, as 



* On the Himalayas are oaks, birches, pines, chestnuts, maples, junipers, 

 and willows ; no tree-ferns, bamboos, or palms. 



t The Agava Americana of botanists, cahulla of Ecuadorians, maguey of 

 Venezuelans, and 7ne//of Mexicans. It is an interesting fact, brought to light 

 by the researches of Carl Neuman, that the Chinese in the fifth century passed 

 over to America by way of the Aleutian Islands, and penetrated as far south 

 as Mexico, which they called the land oifusung, that being the celestial name 

 of the aloe. Terzozomoc, the high-priest of the ancient Mexicans, gave aloe 

 leaves, inscribed with sacred characters, to persons who had to journey among 

 the volcanoes, to protect them from injury. 



