Fruits and Flowers. 101 



they contain much alkali, a soap (which lathers with salt 

 water as well as fresh) is also manufactured from them; 

 the flowers make excellent pickles ; the flower-stalk is used 

 in building ; the pith of the stem is used by bai-bers for 

 sharpening razors ; the fibres of the leaves and the roots 

 are woven into sandals and sacks ; and the sharp spines are 

 used as needles. A species of yucca, resembling the aloe, 

 but with more slender leaves and of a lighter green, yields 

 the hemp of Ecuador. 



The " crack fi'uit" of Quito, and, in fact, of South Amer- 

 ica, is the chirimoya.* Its taste is a happy mixture of 

 sweetness and acidity. Hanke calls it " a masterwork of 

 Nature," and Markham pronounces it "a spiritualized straw- 

 berry." It grows on a tree about fifteen feet high, having 

 a broad, flat top, and very fragrant flowers. The ripe fruit, 

 often attaining in Peru the weight of sixteen pounds, has 

 a thick green skin, and a snow-white pulp containing about 

 seventy black seeds. Other pomological productions are 

 alligator pears, guavas, guayavas, granadillas, cherries (a 

 small black variety), peaches (very poor), pears (equally bad), 

 plums, quinces, lemons, oranges (not native), blackberries, 

 and strawberries (large, but flavorless).! The cultivation of 

 the grape has just commenced. Of vegetables there are 

 onions (in cookery, " the first, and last, and midst, and with- 

 out end"), beets, carrots, asparagus, lettuce, cabbages, tur- 

 nips, tomatoes (indigenous, but inferior to ours), potatoes 

 (alsg indigenous, but much smaller than their descendants),:]: 



* Bollaert derives the name from chiri (cold) and muhu (seed). 



t Dr. Jameson has found the following species of Rubus in the valley of 

 Quito : macrocarpus, stipularis, glahratus, compactus, glaucus, roscrjiorus, lox- 

 ensis, urtic(Bfolius,floribundus, nd nuhigemis. The common strawberry, Fra- 

 garia vesca, grows in the valley, as also the Chilensis. 



X Lieutenant Gilliss praises the potatoes of Peru, but we saw no specimens 

 in Ecuador worthy of note. The "Irish potato" is a native of the Andes. It 

 was unknown to the early Mexicans. It grows as far south on this continent 

 as lat. 50°. The Spaniards carried the potato to Europe from Quito early in 



