200 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap, xix 
Quito, where they are obh'ged to be during the 
three months the Congress is sitting. Mr. White 
is a man of middle age. In his younger days he 
has been United States Consul at Hamburg and 
other ports in the north of Europe, and he has 
travelled also in England and France. Afterwards 
he was for some years Navy Agent on the coast of 
Peru and Chile ; so that he is a man with more 
cosmopolitan sympathies and fewer local prejudices 
than many of his countrymen. Like many diplo- 
matic gentlemen, he is apt to run into long-winded 
dissertations, not remarkable for either depth or 
brilliancy ; and, at the same time, he is a very 
amiable, sound-hearted man. Mrs. White is a very 
friendly, chatty lady, who gets all her dresses out 
from New York, in the latest style of fashion, to 
the admiration and envy of the belles of Ambato. 
I often step into Mr. White's of an evening, just 
as I used to do into yours, when in England. We 
have, however, no chess-playing, and, instead, we 
rail against the people of the country — after the 
fashion of foreigners in all countries — and I listen 
patiently to Mr. White's lectures on political 
aspects and complications. 
To Mr. George Bentham 
Ambato, March i6, 1858. 
As I mentioned in my last letter, my labours at 
Banos were terminated sooner than I wished in 
consequence of having filled all my paper ; and this 
was the more provoking because just at that time 
there were more trees in flower than at any other. 
