THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864. 



68 ON MTROXYLON TOLUIFERUM, AND 



of Mompox, but not in its immediate vicinity ; for the ground for leagues 

 around that place is low and swampy ; indeed, it was nearly all under 

 water when I arrived there, and I afterwards found that the tree is never 

 found in the low tracks adjoining the river, hut in the higher rolling 

 ground beyond, where the soil is dry. 



Finding that the tree was not known in Mompox, I left for Plato on 

 the 17th December. Taking the steamer to Las Mercedes, I went from 

 thence to Plato in a canoe. Las Mercedes is the port of El Carmen, and 

 it consists only of a large storehouse for the tobacco brought from the 

 interior, and the imported goods received in exchange. It was here I 

 first saw the balsam. In the store were upwards of thirty tins full of 

 it, ready for exportation ; most of the tins contained ten pounds of the 

 balsam, but there were also a few of a larger size, each containing an 

 arroba of twenty-five pounds. The storekeeper told me that that lot of 

 balsam had come from Plato only a day or two before, and that he ex- 

 pected some more that evening from the same place. The drug, he fur- 

 ther informed me, was also exported from Teneriffe, Pinto, and Santa 

 Anna, all small ports on the right bank of the river, but that most came 

 from Plato. At Corozhl, he said, none was now gathered, although the 

 tree exists there, as also at El Carmen. 



I was glad to find that I had got on the right track at last, and 

 waited patiently for the canoe from Plato, by which I hoped to get a 

 passage to that place. It arrived about six o'clock in the evening, 

 started on its return an hour later, and by nine of the same day that I 

 left Mompos, we were in Plato. This place is about a league further 

 down the river than Las Mercedes, and on its opposite side, near the 

 outlet of one of the numerous branch streams the river forms in its 

 course. Luckily for me, the "Jefe Municipale" of Plato, Frederico 

 AlFaro by name, came in the canoe with me, and this man showed me 

 much disinterested kindness during my stay there. 



I had great difficulty in getting animals for the journey into the 

 Montana, — not a horse nor a mule was to be had, and it was only after 

 waiting two days that I was able to hire two donkeys, one for my guide 

 and the other for myself ; a third for baggage I could not get, — and in- 

 deed it was considered quite unnecessary, as it is the usual custom here 

 to travel on donkeys loaded with eighty or ninety pounds of cargo be- 

 sides the rider. 



During the two days I had to wait at Plato, I found a species of 

 Myrospermum growing plentifully in the neighbourhood of the village, 

 and gathered specimens of it both in flower and fruit. This I take to 

 be M. frutescens, Jacq. : it grows to a height of about fifteen to twenty 

 feet. Some trees are now in flower, while on others the fruit is already 

 of a good size. The trees bearing flowers or fruit are generally destitute 

 of foliage, and it is only barren individuals that are in full leaf. 



On the morning of the 21st, having got the donkeys and guide assem- 

 bled and everything ready, we started for the Montana. On one side of 



