NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
town on foot ; and it is customary for both men 
and women, when riding on horseback, to protect 
the face by a gauze veil from the sand, the 
scorching sun, and the cold piercing wind. After 
being exposed for some hours to this adverse com- 
bination without such protection, the eyes become 
bloodshot, the skin peels off the face, and the 
nose becomes red and swollen, in which state it 
is emphatically styled a " nariz tostada " (toasted 
nose). I suppose I may have cast the skin of my 
nose not fewer than ten times since I came to 
Ambato. From this brief sketch of the climate 
you will not be surprised to hear that acute 
catarrhal complaints, influenza, spitting of blood, 
etc., are frequent ; but they are very rarely fatal, 
and I have not yet seen a single case of pulmonary 
consumption ; and the climate on the whole must 
be considered conducive to longevity. A country- 
man of ours, Dr. Jervis, nephew of the first Earl 
St. Vincent, died two or three years ago at Cuenca, 
at the age of a hundred and fifteen.* As fires are 
used here only for cooking, the natives have no 
calefacients beyond food, clothing, and solar heat, 
and the latter is often considerable, although the 
thermometer in the shade scarcely ever passes 65°. 
Very old people are sometimes put into a basket of 
cotton and set in the sun, with a wide-brimmed hat 
on their head. Then they remind me of newly- 
hatched goslings I have seen similarly treated. 
It is but two days since I returned from Rio- 
bamba, about 40 miles away to the south, where 
I remained about four weeks, on a visit to my 
countryman Dr. James Taylor, who has been in 
