264 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Pastasa — in which I saw, not without surprise, a bed of the large- 
leaved Rumex, which is frequent in similar situations, at from 
8000 to 9000 feet. The Arenal consists of sand and fine gravel 
of a pale yellow colour. In one place the road, for a considerable 
distance, resembles a broad, smooth gravel-walk in England, so 
that the only bit of really good road in Ecuador has been made 
by nature's hand on the crest of the Andes. The vegetation is 
limited to scattered tufts, or rather hillocks, of a Valeriana, a 
Viola, an Achyrophorus, a Werneria, a Plantago, a Geranium, a 
Draba, a pretty silky -leaved Astragalus, and the elegant Sida 
Pickinchensis^ all of w^hich (save the Astragalus) have rigid leaves 
in the characteristic rosettes of super-alpine vegetation, and send 
enormously thick roots deep down into the loose soil, although 
even these do not secure them from being frequently torn up by 
the violent winds and storms that sweep over them. My attention 
was so much taken up with these interesting plants, and with the 
immense mass of snow on our right, and in tracing the downward 
course of ancient lava-streams, which are as visible on Chimborazo 
as on Cotopaxi and Tunguragua, that I scarcely felt the wind, 
which swept us along like a gale at sea, and occasionally lifted 
small fragments of gravel and hurled them at us. It is scarcely 
necessary to state that the wdnd is here always easterly through 
the day, getting up strong generally about 10 a.m., and rarely con- 
tinuing to blow with equal force through the night and following 
morning. Now and then it veers for a moment, and gives the 
traveller a side blow, w^hich, were he not wary, might unhorse 
him. 
We had left winter behind us on the eastern side of the Cor- 
dillera, and on our first day's journey, as we looked down the 
deep valley of the Pastasa, we saw^ a mantle of dense cloud and 
rain spread over the forest of Canelos. Even the eastern side of 
Sanancajas was wxt and muddy, but after passing Chuquipogyo 
the road became nearly dry, and, on the w^estern side of the 
Cordillera, it was even inconveniently dusty. In the direction of 
the Pacific not a cloud was visible, though the great distance and 
the hazy horizon prevented our actually seeing the ocean. So 
abrupt is the transition from the rainy season, which prevails on 
the eastern side of the Cordillera simultaneously with the dry 
season on the western. 
The Arenal must be near a league across. As we descended 
from it the whole mountain side became covered with flowers, and 
nowhere have I seen alpine vegetation in such perfect state. 
Gentiana cernua, wdth its large pendulous red flowers, formed 
large patches, and was accompanied by three other species of the 
same genus, w^th purple and blue flowers, by Drabas, and other 
alpines. Still descending, the true alpines began to be mixed 
with half shrubby Fuchsiae, Calceolarise, Eupatoria, etc. Even 
