268 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
depth in some places of lo feet, and so strait that the traveller, to 
save his legs from being crushed, must needs throw them on his 
horse's neck. Here and there a large stone sticks out, forming a 
high step, in descending which there is risk of both horse and 
rider turning a summerset. In the travesias there is a consider- 
able depth of black tenacious greasy mould, worn by the equable 
step of beasts of burden into transverse ridges (called camellones, 
from their resemblance to the humps on a camel's back), with 
alternating furrows from i to 3 feet deep. This mould is formed 
in great part of the decayed leaves of the Suru, a bamboo 
of the genus Chusquea,^ which forms almost impenetrable thickets, 
and whose arched stems and intricate branches, overhanging our 
way, much impeded our progress. In such places there was still 
a good deal of water and mud, for the rainy season was only just 
over in the forest. 
At 6000 feet we lost the Wax palm {Ceroxylon andicola, H. et 
B.), which had accompanied us, though growing very sparsely, 
from about the upper limat of the Hill Bark. It descends to the 
same altitude on the eastern side of the Cordillera. Lower down, 
palms began to be tolerably abundant, but of few species. . . . 
At a very little below 4000 feet we came out on the first 
chacras at Limon, where I almost immediately noted, and with 
no small satisfaction, a group of three Red Bark trees, each 
consisting of from two to four stems of 30 feet high, springing 
from old stools, and bearing a small quantity of fruit. We had 
still about two miles of gentle descent to the trapiche (cane-mill) 
destined for our habitation, and we reached it early in the after- 
noon, in the midst of a dense fog. 
The trapiche stood on a narrow ridge running eastward 
and westward, sloping gradually on the northern side to the 
Chasuan, distant half a mile, and very abruptly, or 200 feet 
perpendicular in about 300 yards, to a tributary rivulet on the 
southern side. It was merely a long, low shed, and a sketch 
of its internal arrangements may serve for that of all the other 
trapiches, of which there were about a dozen at Limon. About 
two-thirds of its length was occupied by the rude machinery and 
adjuncts of the cane-mill. The remaining third had an upper 
story with a flooring of bamboo planks, half of it open at the 
sides, and the other half with a bamboo wall about 6 feet high, 
not reaching the roof in any part of it. This was our dormitory, 
and it was reached by a ladder — merely a tree trunk, with rude 
notches for steps. On the ground floor was the kitchen, with a 
wall of rough planks of raft-wood, placed by no means in juxta- 
^ The Chusqueae are bamboos peculiar to the hills, with solid stems, rarely 
exceeding 30 feet in height, and not preserving an erect position for more than 
a few feet from the ground. 
