232 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
while the hassocks shelter in their bosom purple 
Lycopodia and other plants. 
Having passed Sanancajas, we descend to the 
sandy plain of Riobamba, whose general character 
is the same as that of Ambato, save that cactus- 
hedges often replace those of aloes. 
In Riobamba I remained three days with my 
hospitable countryman Dr. James Taylor, and then 
proceeded on my way, going the first day only as 
far as Miraflores, a farm six leagues away from Rio- 
bamba, and near the village of Guamote. On the 
way we had to climb over a small space of paramo, 
where we got the benefit of a storm of hail and 
sleet. The vegetation was scanty, and I gathered 
only a minute Umbellifer which was new to me. 
Miraflores is what is called a cold farm, consisting 
chiefly of pasture and barley fields. A short ascent 
from it brought us upon the Paramo de Tiocajas, 
which is full six leagues across. Anything more 
desolate than this paramo I have nowhere seen. It 
is one great desert of movable sand, in which the 
distant patches of Cacti, Hedyotis, and a succulent 
Composita only render its nakedness more apparent. 
Where there is a little moisture, solitary plants of a 
silky-leaved Plantago struggle for existence. The 
altitude is about the same as that of Sanancajas, and 
it may be imagined how cheerless was a slow ride 
of nearly 20 miles over such a waste, rendered 
all the more gloomy by a leaden sky overhead, and 
a piercing wind which came laden with mist and 
fine sand. I was obliged to go nearly at the pace 
of my loaded beasts, the unsettled state of the 
country, and the number of deserters from the 
" constitutional " army roaming about, rendering it 
