XIX IN THE ECUADOREAN ANDES 207 
far beyond what other botanists have supposed to 
be Hkely, but no one had ever before given the 
same close attention to the species of forest-trees 
over so large an area as Spruce had done.] 
To Mr. George Bentham 
AMBATO, /////d? 2 2, 1858. 
I have just completed packing up three cases of 
plants to be dispatched to you. . . . 
There are a few specimens of a Balanophorea which I have 
included in the general collection, and a single specimen (being 
all I could find) of a plant allied to Raffiesiaceae, which please 
give to Dr. Hooker. The latter grew on the root of a tree in the 
forest on Mount Tunguragua ; when fresh the involucre was dull 
purple and the florets violet — it has shrunk about half in drying. 
I only guess at its affinities, for I did not wish to injure the specimen 
by examining it. 
The Phanerogamic collection is not so interesting as I could 
wish. As I mentioned in a previous letter, I was prevented from 
gathering many interesting trees about Bahos by having filled all 
my paper. I have lately revisited Bahos and spent a month 
there, but the weather was very gloomy and rainy, and there were 
scarcely any flowers. In consequence of this I found it impracti- 
cable to procure plants of the fine Orchids I have found on Tungu- 
ragua. Nor did I find a single moss that I had not gathered 
during my previous residence there — so eagerly, it seems, I had 
searched for them — though I got tw^enty-one ferns and a few 
Hepaticse w^hich had previously escaped me. 
What a fine chance there is now for your friend 
Dr. Caapanema, or for any other wealthy and 
scientific Brazilian not afraid of heat, rains, and 
mosquitoes, to explore the Amazon and its tribu- 
taries in a small steamer, where everything neces- 
sary could be carried, and their collections preserved 
and stowed away ! 
I have lately been calculating the number of 
