IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 299 
straight line, but there is no road unless by way of 
Guaranda, which would take four days. I therefore 
followed a route already taken by Dr. Taylor, 
namely, along the path to Guaranda as far as the 
first ridge, and thence down to some cane-farms on 
the Rio de Tablas. From this point Dr. Taylor 
with an Indian had opened a track. I remained at 
Tabacal from the 14th to the 28th of September, 
collecting seeds as the capsules ripened and drying 
them carefully before packing. 
I had now gathered about 2500 well-grown 
capsules (without enumerating many smaller ones), 
namely, 2000 from ten trees at Limon, and 500 
from five trees at San Antonio. Good capsules 
contain 40 seeds each — in some I have counted 42 
— so that I calculated I had (in round numbers) at 
least 100,000 well- ripened and well-dried seeds. 
Some small turgid (almost globose) capsules con- 
tained only from two to four seeds, as large and 
ripe as any in the largest capsules, while other 
capsules of the ordinary length, but slender, proved 
to contain only abortive seeds and were accordingly 
rejected in the drying. Had the month of July 
been as sunny as it is said usually to be, many m.ore 
capsules would doubtless have ripened ; as it was, 
only about one flower in ten produced ripe seeds. 
I had scarcely finished drying my seeds at 
Tabacal, when I received the welcome intelligence 
that the army of General Flores had obtained pos- 
session of Guayaquil, and that the communication 
between the coast and the interior was reopened. 
I therefore resolved to proceed to Guayaquil and 
dispatch from thence a portion of my seeds by the 
first opportunity. 
