THE FORESTS OF ALAUSI 245 
general collection ; besides, I had to visit other 
forests in quest of other sorts of Cascarilla, and I 
saw the season was already passing for the flowers 
and seeds of most trees. We therefore on the 
following day retraced our steps up the valley, 
and after another day spent at Lucmas in drying 
my paper and adding what I could to my collection, 
I returned to Guataxi. 
I was unable to move far from the farm for 
above a fortnight afterwards, on account of the 
passage of the Government troops from Quito to 
Cuenca. . . . 
During this interval I was obliged to content 
myself with the flora of Guataxi. The cane-farm 
is about 7000 feet above the sea ; the maximum 
temperature each day was generally about 73°, 
though it once reached 77°, and the minimum 
temperature varied from 55' to 6o\ A plateau, 
about a thousand feet higher, belongs to the farm, 
and produces good crops of grain and potatoes. 
The hills adjacent to the farm, except where under 
cultivation and artificially irrigated, are covered 
with grass, amongst which the withered remains 
of a good many annuals were visible. Almost 
the only annual still flourishing was, singularly 
enough, a species of Monnina, with violet flowers ; 
and, as most of the species of this genus are trees, 
I took it for a Polygala until I saw the fruit. The 
" Yerba Taylor" i^Herpestes chamcEciryoides, H. B. K.), 
which has great fame as a remedy for snake-bites, 
was frequent, but mostly scorched up. Amongst 
the perennial herbs (most of which were new to 
me) may be mentioned an Epilobium, a Stachys, a 
Phaseolus, a Desmodium, two Crotalariae, a shaggy 
