38 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VOL: XXXII. 
done on horseback, as the mountain roads are not available 
for vehicles. The native ponies are very sure-footed, however, 
and the trip offers no hardships, and more than repays one, 
both scenically and botanically, for the trouble. The scenery 
is of the most magnificent character, with fine views in all 
directions. This is the principal coffee-growing district, and 
on all sides were extensive plantations, many of them very old. 
Here and there were the works for storing and curing the 
berry, great heaps of which could be seen in places spread out 
upon the concrete platforms, “ barbecues,” to dry in the sun. 
We visited the Hill gardens, “ Cinchona,” where there are 
plantations of cinchona trees, whose cultivation, however, no 
longer is profitable. Most of the plantation lies about five 
thousand feet high, and here the conditions are favorable for 
the growth of many subtropical and temperate plants, as the 
temperature is never extreme. 
In the neighborhood of Cinchona were found the finest col- 
lecting grounds for ferns met with anywhere. In the shady, 
moist ravines there was a profusion of fern growths far exceed- 
ing anything I have ever seen. The tree ferns, various species 
of Alsophila and Cyathea, were magnificent; some of them could 
scarcely have been less than forty feet in height, their graceful, 
slender trunks crowned with the exquisitely cut leaves looking 
like the finest lace overhead against the sky. The undergrowth 
was largely composed of a bewildering variety of ferns, from big 
Marattias and Alsophilas, with leaves ten or fifteen feet long, 
to tiny Hymenophyllums, looking more like delicate mosses than 
ferns. Other interesting plants were Danza, several species of 
Gleichenia and Davallia, and many fine liverworts and mosses. 
A rather unexpected find was a Sphagnum, which occurred in 
large beds along the roadside in one place. The occurrence of 
Sphagnum, as well as other Northern plants, such as Lycopodium 
clavatum, L. complanatum, Fragaria vesca, blackberries, and 
buttercups, mixed with beautiful pink begonias, Gleichenia, 
and other tropical types, showed the meeting of the Alpine and 
lowland floras. 
The ride from Cinchona to the summit, about two thousand 
feet above it, did not reveal any very marked differences in the 
