IX IN THE ECUADOREAN ANDES 211 
the fact that, while so many South American Hepaticae are iden- 
tical with Indian species, scarcely any mosses are. I feel sure I 
have many European species among my Andine collections. I 
was surprised to see on Chimborazo dense tufts of Hypiium 
Schreberi growing among the heather just as they do in England. 
To Mr, George Bent ham 
Quito, Aug. 17, 1858. 
I have lately had the pleasure of receiving your 
letter of June i, containing the names of my Vene- 
zuelan plants. My notes on these are in Ambato ; 
still, I recognise the greater part of them. . . . 
Nearly every plant I gathered at the highest point 
of the Guainia which I explored proves to be new ; 
and this increases my regret that I could not, on 
account of illness, follow out my original project 
of ascending that river as far as the cataracts. . . . 
I have a new genus allied to Henriquezia in the 
forest of Canelos, but when I shall be able to go 
and gather it I cannot tell. It is an immense tree, 
with leaves three together, and with large yellow 
flowers 6 inches long — five equal stamens — but a 
much longer corolla-tube than Henriquezia. 
I am satisfied to find that the small collection 
from Maypures has arrived in an identifiable state. 
When I opened it out at San Fernando, after my 
long illness, both plants and paper were one mass 
of mould. By little and little, as my trembling 
hands and dim eyes allowed me, I brushed away 
the mould and transferred the plants to other paper. 
When I reached San Carlos the process had to be 
renewed, so that I had reasonable doubts of their 
preserving any of their original semblance when 
they reached England. 
