33 



had a puncture and while the chauffeur (Moreno) was fix- 

 ing it, we tried to collect in a pasture but with no 

 results, l.uch too dry. After crossing the second row 

 of hills we found ourselves in a small edition of the 

 Sabana and, miles ahead, could see the town of Guasca, 



r i 



Guasca 



where Murillo was born. Quite typical of the Colombian 

 towns, with its large and imposing church facing the 

 central square and the low, mostly one-story houses of 

 rammed earth or adobe. Streets are very narrow and poorly 

 paved. We stopped long enough to buy bread, cheese and 

 bottled beer for our lunch, to be eaten up on the paramo. 

 Off again and up to the crest of the divide, a bleak, 

 Wind-swept saddle at 3,300 meters or about 10,700 feet. 

 This was the true paramo, with stunted vegetation and 

 many plants of "frailejon", a composite of the genus Es- 

 pelettia which has wooly leaves and a central stem bear- 

 ing six to twelve miniature sunflowers. There are in all 

 about £f> species of Lspelettia, all but five of which are 

 confined to Colombia; the other five have distributions 

 which include Venezuela or Ecuador. 



V,e collected on the frailej6n, getting many Membraci- 

 dae and Tripetidae. Mo Coccinellidae which was a disap- 

 pointment, as the collection at the Institute contains a 

 short series of a very interesting species of Hinda or 

 related genus, all taken at this very place. After a 

 lunch of bread and cheese we started down the other side 

 of the divide, drooping in a short time to 1,900 meters 

 at Puente Licio, $ kms. west of Gacheta. Here we col- 

 lected on citrus, coffee, guava, etc. for nearly four 

 hours, getting a good series of Coccinellids . Before 

 starting for home, we ran into Gacheta for a bottle of 

 soda as we Yfere getting very thirsty. Left Gacheta for 

 Bogota at I«, which left a little time to collect on the 



