8 



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



and the valley bottoms may be mud flats, sand banks, or narrow boulder-strewn 

 corridors, interspersed with massive, overhanging rocky ledges. 



The thing immediately obvious in this ever-changing series of habitats was 

 the great abundance of species and the relatively few individuals of each. This 

 is not true of the steep Andean escarpments, or for that matter of the outer slopes 

 of the Cutucu. Duplicate specimens sometimes were a problem. Among the Rubi- 

 aceae, the gaudily flowered Palicoureas offered no problem, since they are shrubs 

 and trees. But the ubiquitous and somewhat more herbaceous Psychotrias some- 

 times were most vexatious, for it seemed that no two were exactly alike. In the 

 herbaceous members of other families one might see a small but seemingly vig- 

 orous colony of some sort growing in the moss atop a boulder. There were hun- 

 dreds of moss-covered boulders in the same area, all seemingly alike — but it was 

 unusual to find another colony of the same plant. It was an amazingly complex 

 flora and it hurt mightily not to be able to make a clean sweep of samples from it. 

 But our job was hunting Cinchona, 



As I had anticipated, we did find Cinchona on the upper slopes and top of the 

 Cutucu. Some of it was worthless; other samples gave quite good analyses, the 

 latter in my opinion being related to the Calisaya type from much farther south in 

 the Andes. But unlike the Cinchonas of the Andean slopes, which grow in "man- 

 chas" or colonies, those of the Cutucu occurred as occasional, scattered trees. 

 In this they were consistent with the rest of the flora there. At the time I was 

 deeply disappointed. On later reflection I was rather glad of it. The Jivaros would 

 not have demeaned themselves by stooping to the type of labor necessary to har- 

 vest the bark, and the importation of Cholo cascarilleros from the Andean uplands 

 would only have caused bloody trouble here in the center of the Jivaro territory. 



One cannot leave this part of the narrative without at least further brief men- 

 tion of the Jivaros themselves. At times they have been grossly maligned by 

 those writers who have been on the fringes of their territory, and whose know- 

 ledge of them is based largely on hearsay, by brief contact as they happen to 

 come into the few places available to them for trade, or, worse yet, by those out- 

 casts and loafers that congregate about the few missions. It is only after one 

 actually has known the Jivaros of the eastern lowlands, hunted with them, and 

 lived for some time in their homes, that their true character is evident. They are 

 a proud and stiff-backed race and, so far as my knowledge goes, have never been 

 conquered or subdued. (The much-publicized "Colorados" of the lowlands west 

 of Quito are a different race, now drunken and debauched.) The Spaniards early 

 founded cities in the Oriente, expecting to make slaves of the Jivaros, either by 

 force or by debauching and degrading them. Neither of these methods succeeded 

 and, ulfimately, the Spaniards were forced to withdraw. Tradition has it that the 

 present village of Sevilla de Oro (which will find a place in a later section of 

 this narrative) was named as a memorial to the Sevilla de Oro which the Span- 

 iards founded in the Oriente, but which was wiped out by the Jivaros. 



The Jivaros are excellent gardeners. In fact, I have rarely seen cleaner or 

 better stocked gardens among the so-called primitive peoples of the Americas. 

 The basic food items are the sweet potato, yuca, and maize, furnishing both pro- 

 teins and carbohydrates. Several types of sweet potatoes are raised. The yuca is 

 the "sweet" type, that is, the selected form devoid of the bitter, poisonous prin- 

 ciple in the form grown widely by the 'Mown river" tribes, and which must be 

 grated and washed in water before it can be used. A similar form of this plant is 

 the source of our tapioca. Two quite distinct types of maize also are raised, one 

 being primarily a parching type, the other sometimes ground into meal. The yuca, 

 however, is the staple carbohydrate. Although the Jivaros are excellent potters 



