By Mr. Theodore Hartweg. 



149 



again, sending their offspring a couple of yards higher up, and thus 

 often a single plant runs up a tree 25 feet in height. This species 

 together with twenty more, which I collected in these damp woods, 

 was ill fitted to withstand the long journey round Cape Horn ; 

 and, consequently the greater part of them when they arrived in 

 England were dead ; of those surviving, Stanhopea Bucephalus and 

 Lycaste lanipes alone have flowered. 



From Paccha towards Loxa, the ground is extremely uneven. 

 Near the Indian village El Sisne, at an elevation of nearly 9,000 

 feet, I found Stenomesson aurantiacum, displaying bright orange 

 flowers, and several large-rooted species of Macleania, with Myrica 

 macrocarpa, from the seeds of which the industrious Indians 

 obtain a green wax, employed for religious purposes. De- 

 scending to the valley of El Catamayo, the presence of Agaves, 

 Mimosas, a triangular Cereus, Schinus Molle (here called " Molle," 

 or pepper tree). Elaphrium and Crotons, indicated a dry atmo- 

 sphere. A tree called Arupo {Chionanthus pubescens,) inhabiting 

 the steep sides of the mountains, formed a conspicuous object ; its 

 delicate rose-coloured flowers, produced in great abundance before 

 the leaves, are visible at a great distance, and contrast well 

 with the apparently dead vegetation around. From the farm 

 of El Catamayo, where sugar-cane is cultivated, to the town 

 of Loxa, a distance of five leagues, the main Cordillera has 

 to be crossed ; this part of the Andes is of easy access and is 

 scarcely more than 8,000 feet above the sea ; it has formerly been 

 a Cinchona forest, but since the Quina has become an article of 

 commerce, the Cinchona has gradually disappeared, on account 

 °f the bad system which is pursued in obtaining the bark by 

 uprooting the plant. The best Quina or Cascarilla is yielded 

 by Cinchona Condaminea, which is 6 feet in height ; several other 

 species of arborescent Cinchonas abound in the mountains of 

 Loxa, but their bark is considered to be inferior to this. In the 

 wore exposed situations of this Cordillera, I collected, several 



