THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1865. 



408 THE INDIGENOUS VEGETATION OP 



iEsop's fox was of grapes, and do not despise them even when- green, 

 so they can get at them. Lizards and a few snakes also seek the shel- 

 ter of the lipe. Flocks of small birds roost there by night, and by day 

 pick the berries.* 



The companion of the lipe is a rampant Ny ctaginea (Cryptocarpus sp.), 

 whose local name I forget. It climbs to the tops of the algarrobos, and 

 often hangs therefrom in dense masses. It has heart-shaped stellato- 

 pubescent leaves (fleshy when growing near the sea), and panicles of 

 minute green flowers, which persist on the enclosed black utricle. A 

 stout parasitical Loranthus, with small yellowish flowers, often forms 

 large bushes on the algarrobo, and generally ends by destroying the 

 tree whereupon it has established itself. 



A far handsomer tree than the algarrobo sometimes grows along 

 with it, especially where there is rather more moisture than usual ; this 

 is the Oharan (Ccesalpinia sp.). It is a widely-spreading tree, often 

 branched from the very base, and the shining reddish bark is being 

 constantly renewed. It has exceedingly graceful bipinnate foliage — 

 roseate at the tips of the branches— panicles of yellow flowers, spotted 

 with red, and thick deep-purple pods, which (like those of the allied 

 dividivi of the Spanish main) are extensively used in tanning. -f- 



The Azota-Crisio or Whip Christ (Parhinsonia aculeata), so called 

 from its excessively long pendulous leaves, from whose thong-like 

 rachis the small leaflets often fall away, is less handsome but still more 

 uncommon-looking than the Charan, and it is also much rarer in this 

 region. It reappears in the Antilles. 



A few other trees are occasionally met with, such as a Calliandra, 

 conspicuous for its numerous flowers — green tinged with rose — out of 

 which hang the long silky straw-coloured stamens, and for its curled 

 scarlet pods ; two Acacias, one of them the widely-dispersed A. Fame- 

 siana; a Maytenus, which is especially abundant at the mouth of the 

 Chira, and is common enough along the coast of Ecuador as far north 

 as the Ecpiator ; and the Oberal ( Varronia rotundi/olia), a solaneous tree 

 or shrub, with numerous bright yellow trumpet-shaped flowers and 

 white berries, abounding in a viscid juice, which is used by the dusky 

 beauties of Guayaquil to straighten out their hair and hide its natural 

 crispness. The Oberal grows in much greater abundance and luxuriance 

 in Ecuador, where it is called Muyuyu, and also at Lima, where it is 

 known as Membrillejo. 



The trees mentioned above as belonging to the desert grow also in 

 the valley, and far more luxuriantly there, but generally scattered along 



• The lipe sometimes straggles out on the desert, and is then either wholly or 

 in part leafless. In this form it is the Rhamnus senticosus, H.B.K. 



t The Charan is so like the Cascol of the coast of Guayaquil (Ccesalpinia 

 coi-ymbosa, Benth.) that it is hard to say whether it deserves a distinct specific 

 uame ; the leaflets, however, are larger, and the panicles are not corymbose. The 

 pods of the Cascol have the same use as those of the Charan. 



