XIX IN THE ECUADOREAN ANDES 205 
great distance from it), which has been my hunting- 
ground for the last seven months. Though so 
near, it would seem that a great proportion of the 
plants are distinct. . . . 
At the foot of Tunguragua, in dripping situations, I found a 
small Polypodium creeping on branches which has the fronds 
deeply sinuated so as to resemble a narrow oak-leaf. All the 
fronds are fertile, and I take it to be nothing more than a variety 
of a Marginaria with linear lanceolate fronds that grows near. 
A short time ago I found in a strip of forest by the Pastasa, 
about 10 miles below Bahos, a very strange little fern with com- 
pound fleshy fronds, looking not unlike one of the small Asplenia, 
but completely different from that genus and its allies. The sori, 
immersed in the margin of the frond, recall those of some 
Davallise, in which genus, however, the structure of the receptacles 
seems essentially distinct. I enclose a small specimen, and if the 
fern be really new and you would like to describe it, I will send 
you the largest plant I have, which is about three times the size 
of this one. Unfortunately, I could find the fern on only a single 
tree, though I spent two hours in searching the neighbouring 
trees, and my stock of it is rather small. ^ 
From my letters to Mr. Bentham you will have learnt how 
much I suffered in the Montana of Canelos, on my way hither. 
This name is popularly given to the forest from near Bahos, where 
the natural pastures begin, at the actual foot of the Cordillera, to 
Canelos on the Bombonasa. It is the finest ground for Crypto- 
gamia I have ever seen, but when I passed through it with 
Indians I was obliged to lighten my cargoes by giving and throw- 
ing away whatever I could best spare, so that I could bring no 
plants along save a few mosses. . . . One striking feature among 
the ferns was the number of sarmentose, or even actually climb- 
ing, species of various genera. On the Bombonasa a true Sela- 
ginella climbs into the trees to the height of 30 feet, and the 
twining caudex sends off fronds 4 feet long ; in some places it 
forms impenetrable thickets. A handsome Marattia was a great 
acquisition to me, as I had not previously seen that genus grow- 
ing. Two small Asplenia, looking quite like Hymenophylla, crept 
along the branches of shrubs by shady rivulets. But the most 
remarkable plant in the forest of Canelos is a gigantic Equisetum, 
20 feet high, and the stem nearly as thick as the wrist ! ... It 
extends for a distance of a mile on a plain bordering the Pastasa, 
but elevated some 200 feet above it, where at every few steps one 
^ It is Davallia Lindeni, Hook. Sp. , Fil. I, p. 193, and has been found at 
Caraccas and also in the Organ Mountains of Brazil. 
