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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN [ Vol. 8, No. 1 



that first year there were occasions when a few specimens of general interest 

 could be taken c There were moments for collecting to be snatched along the trail 

 while the crew rested, or when the muledrivers paused to tighten the fastenings 

 or rearrange the cargoes. There were brief hours after making camp while supper 

 was being cooked and before the sudden falling of the equatorial night. Sundays, 

 national holidays and certain Saint's Days of local importance, necessarily ob- 

 served by the crews, also afforded opportunities for local field excursions of in- 

 terest. Also there were long journeys by military "jeep." Anyone having ridden 

 these useful vehicles over rough terrain will understand the necessity for oc- 

 casional rest periods; one could just as easily rest cramped muscles while col- 

 lecting a few specimens as by walking about idly. 



At this point I should like to pay tribute to my three major assistants. The 

 first to join me was Sr. Francisco Prieto. He came to me while my headquarters 

 were in Loja. "Pancho" was from the San Marcos area northeast of Azogues in 

 Canar. Coming from a long line of Cholo cascarilleros, he knew the Cinchona 

 barks of the southern part of Ecuador and took pains to teach me the lore of cas- 

 carilla bark hunting, as well as the multitudinous ways in which the bark was 

 faked or diluted. He was a conscientious and excellent workman and completely 

 to be trusted to operate alone. As a result he was often sent on special trips 

 when it was not expedient to make up a full-scale expedition. He soon learned the 

 art of arranging specimens and when once he learned that field notes were neces- 

 sary, these also were forthcoming., His field book was a labor of love, painfully 

 fashioned with much twisting of his mouth so as to better form the letters as they 

 slowly evolved from the end of his pencil. The result was readable, but in a de- 

 lightful mixture of Spanish and native Quechua, both spelled phonetically and ac- 

 cording to the local variants of pronunciation. Recasting these notes from the 

 local patois into Spanish and thence into English always was a pleasant occa- 

 sion, for then Pancho would give me further insight into the folk-ways of his 

 people. 



Shortly after Pancho's arrival in Loja, Mr. Henning Jorgensen was hired by 

 the central office in Quito. I had met him and asked that he be assigned to my 

 crew. Jorgensen was a native of Ktfbenhavn, Denmark, but had been resident in 

 Ecuador for some years. He had panned gold for a few years in the Oriente along 

 the Rio Zamora and its tributaries, where he had come into intimate contact with 

 the Jivaros of the region. The welcome afforded us by the principal chief of the 

 region when we had cause to explore in that area testified more than words to 

 Jorgensen's character, for, on the whole, the white man is not welcome in the 

 houses oi the Jivaros. I never saw Jorgensen hurry at any task he was doing, yet 

 he could turn out a prodigious amount of work, and by the simple expedient of 

 sticking at it, regardless of the hour, until the task was done. 



Early in August, 1944, my headquarters was transferred from Loja to Cuenca 

 in the Province of Azuay. I took both Prieto and Jorgensen with me. In August, 

 Sr. Manuel Giler was transferred from the crews working in the northern prov- 

 inces and I requested that he be assigned to the Cuenca office. He became a 

 valuable member of our exploratory crew. He had, if memory serves, originally 

 been a cook on one of the northern crews; whatever he had been, I soon found that 

 his talents lay elsewhere. He knew his way about among the usually inscrutable 

 and devious small merchants in Cuenca, so he became our * 'expediter." If cor- 

 rugated boxes were needed to pack specimens, he always knew where to locate 

 them, even in establishments where I had been gravely— even sorrowfully— assured 

 that none was available. If a camion was needed to truck our gear and ourselves 



