38 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
rough sketch-map of the district which I found 
among his papers, I have, I hope, succeeded in 
giving a tolerable idea of this interesting locality, 
which forms the most important centre of population 
in North-Eastern Peru, and which seems to be still 
very little known to European, and certainly to 
British scientific travellers.] 
To Mr. John Teasdale {continued) 
March 23, 1856. 
On reaching Tarapoto about sunset, Don Ignacio 
placed his well-furnished table at my disposal, and 
he had already secured me an unoccupied house in 
a situation exactly corresponding to my wishes. 
It is away from any street, in the midst of a garden, 
and only a dozen yards from the edge of a declivity 
which barely allows the canes and plantains to take 
root on it ; at its base the turbulent Shillicaio seeks 
its course among rude masses of rock, its sparkling 
waters appearing only here and there, because 
hemmed in by a dense hedge of low trees and 
twiners. It much reminds me of the Pyrenean 
" gaves." There is no other house nearer than 
fifty paces, and this, though conducing to my more 
perfect quiet, may be a disadvantage if it should 
happen that I have come among ill-disposed folk. 
The garden is planted with sugar-cane, yuca-dulce, 
cotton, sweet potatoes, frijoles (beans), and calabash 
trees. There are also several clumps of herbs (in- 
cluding at least three distinct species of Capsicum), 
and two or three young trees of Yangua tinctoria. 
Across the stream is the pueblo of Cumbasa — 
a sort of suburb to Tarapoto, inhabited chiefly by 
