1952] 



PLANT HUNTING IN ECUADOR 



15 



"living fence" in parts of the northern provinces of Ecuador; I never found it thus 

 in the southern provinces. I did find it in the southern provinces, but only about 

 old temple platforms or ancient ruins. The Jivaros of the eastern lowlands regu- 

 larly raise other kinds of this genus, these being perhaps somewhere in the gen- 

 eral affinity of the D. arborea group, but usually in soft pinks and salmony pastel 

 shades. As individual plants in the gardens of these head-hunters, they make a 

 striking show, and far outrank in beauty any hybrid Daturas I have yet seen in 

 cultivation. It was with deep regret that I could find no seed on certain of these 

 plants (they may be self-sterile); and it was impractical to attempt to make cut- 

 tings at that time. The seeds of the group are supposed to contain a potent nar- 

 cotic. However, it is the leaves that were and still are used. 



Jorgensen told me how, while he was panning for gold in the Oriente some 

 years previously, an accidental gunshot lodged in the muscles of his leg. No 

 doctor was available, yet it was necessary to remove the bullet if he were to re- 

 cover properly. The Jivaros took charge of him, made a decoction of the leaves of 

 the species which they raise for this purpose, and had him drink it. He soon be- 

 came drowsy <> When he awoke (they told him that it was about 36 hours later) the 

 bullet had been removed and the deep cut skillfully poulticed with native medica- 

 ments. Unfortunately, he could not see He complained of this, but was told to be 

 patient. He said that he did not regain normal vision for another four or five days, 

 after which there was no apparent further effect of the narcotic. 



One of the common sights in archaeological museums is the ancient skulls of 

 former inhabitants of the Andes, often with holes where they had been quite skill- 

 fully trepanned, probably for the relief pf abscesses of the brain or similar cerebral 

 afflictions. Many give evidence of post-operational healing, indicating that the 

 patients survived and lived for quite some time afterwards. In speculating on 

 these items some have wondered how they held the patient still for so tedious 

 and painful an operation. I think we need hunt no farther than the genus Datura 

 for the anaesthetic which these ancient surgeons used. The common occurrence 

 of these trepanned skulls, especially in the older archaeological sites, has puz- 

 zled many workers. They might be reminded that syphilis is endemic to the Andean 

 highlands and that the inhabitants have been afflicted with it so long that they 

 have evolved a race now apparently almost immune to its secondary and worst ef- 

 fects. In my year and a half in the back country of Ecuador I never saw a case of 

 what I would suspect was syphilitic paresis among the true natives. With the in- 

 digenous inhabitants such an infection is scarcely more troublesome than is the 

 common cold with us. Their favorite "cure" is a decoction of the native Ephedra. 

 But I wander from the field of plant exploration into ethno- and medical botany; I 

 trust, however, that someday my fairly extensive notes on the native pharmaceu- 

 tical plants, as employed by the Quechua-speaking peoples of the region, will be 

 collated with the plant identifications yet to come and so made available to work- 

 ers in this specialized field. 



THE COLLECTING 



In the year and a half of field work in Ecuador, something over 5,200 separate 

 numbers were collected; with the duplicates, materials for approximately 26,000 

 individual herbarium sheets were prepared. To these also should be added certain 

 small collections of my three major assistants, taken when they were on special 

 assignments. In general, however, their specimens, although credited to them on 

 the tickets, were run into my own number series and so appear in the general 

 tally. As intimated in earlier passages, during the first year, while employed in 

 the search for Cinchona, the collecting was desultory, or connected in some way 



