276 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
Quitonian Andes there is a great burst of blossom at the com- 
mencement of the dry season, that is, towards the end of May ; 
and another of less extent after the rains of the autumnal equinox ; 
so that, as my visit fell between those two epochs, many of the 
trees were in the same unsatisfactory state as the Hill Bark already 
mentioned, and others had not yet begun to flower. Besides, I 
should hardly, under any circumstances, have been at the trouble 
of cutting down a large tree for the sake of only two or three 
specimens ; and, after we began to prepare the Bark plants, the 
Indians could hardly be spared for any other service. 
In proceeding to give a classified list of the plants collected 
and observed, I shall generally limit myself to indicating their 
natural order. In order that my attention might not be called 
away from the main object of the enterprise, I collected very few 
(often unique) specimens of each plant. . . . The general char- 
acter of the vegetation may, however, be sketched very intelligibly 
with very little reference to species. 
[The following account of the vegetation of the 
Red Bark forests has been reduced by the omission 
of all passages not directly bearing on the subject, 
or dealing only with botanical details. It is, how- 
ever, so full of information on points of geographical 
distribution and of examples of unusual plant- 
structure, and also contains so many short descrip- 
tions of strange or beautiful flowers still unknown 
to our horticulturists, as to make it both interesting 
and instructive to all who study or appreciate the 
beauty and variety of the vegetation of tropical 
regions. It is therefore, with these exceptions, 
printed entire.] 
SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION OF THE RED BARK 
FORESTS OF CHIMBORAZO (alt. 2000 to 5000 feet) 
Graminece, 4.^ — A good many species of this order were 
observed, but, as is mostly the case in the dry season, nearly all 
partially dried up and out of flower ; besides that, even in the 
^ The number affixed to most of the orders indicates how many species of 
that order I gathered in a perfect state. 
