NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
provoking, for the seeds were far from ripe, and all the rest might 
be destroyed in the same way, so I immediately went round to 
the inhabitants and informed them that the seeds would be of no 
value to me unless I gathered them myself; and I offered a 
gratuity to the owners of the chacras where there were trees in 
fruit to allow no one to approach the trees except myself and Dr. 
Taylor. This had the desired effect, and I do not think a single 
capsule was molested afterwards. 
Whilst Dr. Taylor was at Ventanas, the troops of the Pro- 
visional Government of Quito began to march down from the 
Sierra to attack the forces which held the low country, and they 
selected the route by Limon and Ventanas, along which an army 
had never been known to pass. For six weeks we were kept in 
continual alarm by the passing of troops, and it needed all our 
vigilance to prevent our horses and goods being stolen ; indeed, 
one of my horses was carried off, though I afterwards recovered 
it. It was now clear that, unless there had been two of us, both 
independent of the political feuds of the country, the enterprise 
must have fallen through. All our provisions had to be procured 
from Guaranda, and, as they soon deteriorated in a moist, warm 
climate, whenever our stock got low Dr. Taylor had to take my 
horses and an Indian and go all the long distance to Guaranda to 
fetch more. . . . About half a day's journey down the valley 
there were a good many plantains on a deserted farm, and at 
twice the distance a negro had a fine plantation of them, from 
which I two or three times got up a mule-load ; but the hungry 
soldiery soon made an end of them, and then even that resource 
was cut off. 
The view from Limon takes in a vast extent of countrv, both 
upwards and downwards, and the whole is unbroken forest, save 
towards the source of the Chasuan, where a lofty ridge rises above 
the region of arborescent vegetation and is crowned by a small 
breadth of grassy paramo. Nowhere are there any bare precipices, 
and a very steep declivity forming an angle of 60° with the 
horizon, appearing far away up the Chasuan, is as densely wooded 
as any other part. The opening at Limon, it will be understood, 
is purely artificial. 
The crystalline waters of the Chasuan and its tributaries, in 
that part of their course where the Red Bark grows, run over a 
black or dull blue, shining, and very compact trachyte, which 
would seem to be the foundation of the Quitonian Andes, for it 
appears almost everywhere in the lower valleys, on both the eastern 
and western declivities. In the river Pastasa it occurs at from 
3000 up to 7000 feet. Generally it is exposed to view only in the 
bed of the streams, or on their banks, where it often rises into 
ru2;s:ed and fantastic cliffs. Over the trachyte at Limon there is 
