294 ' NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Ventanas (which appears so short on the map) had 
taken him thirteen days to travel. He finally 
reached Limon on the 27th of July, looking pale 
and thin from his recent illness and from the 
sleepless nights passed on the river, but anxious to 
set to work immediately. We had no young 
plants for him, nor any expectation of obtaining 
them, but I was satisfied that cuttings would 
succeed, although it would necessarily be a tedious 
process to root them well. The owner of the 
chacra of Oso-cahuitu showed me some sprigs, cut 
from an old stool of Red Bark, which he had stuck 
into the ground by a watercourse four months pre- 
viously, and they had all rooted well. Mr. Cross 
also agreed with me that the success of the process 
was certain, and that the question was merely one 
of time, which only experience could solve. After 
reposing the following day (Sunday), we had a 
piece of ground fenced in, and Mr. Cross made a 
pit, and prepared the soil to receive the cuttings, 
of which he put in above a thousand on the ist of 
August and following days. He afterwards put in 
a great many more, subjecting them to various 
modes of treatment ; and he went round to all the 
old stools, and put in as many layers from them as 
possible ; but only those who have attempted to do 
anything in the forest, possessing scarcely any of 
the necessary appliances, and obliged to supply 
them as far as possible from the forest itself, can 
have any idea of the difficulties to be surmounted. 
Glass was the only thing for which we could find 
no substitute, and to get up to Limon the glasses 
of the Wardian cases was not to be thought of, 
over roads so narrow and rough, where even the 
