IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS -.01 
notable for its extensive orangeries, which produce 
the finest fruit in Ecuador. Here the valley opens 
out wide, and by an almost imperceptible descent 
mingles gradually with the plain. The river 
became muddy, still, and tolerably deep. The 
vegetation is now unmistakably tropical, and there 
is as noble forest around Pozuelos as I have any- 
where seen. Palms are far less varied than on the 
Amazon, but the Attalea above mentioned grows 
immensely tall and stout. An Astrocaryum, whose 
clustered trunks are perfect chevaux de frise, from 
the long flat prickles with which they are beset, is 
very frequent. Mimosse are abundant, and so are 
papilionaceous twiners, among which I noted an 
Ecastaphyllum. The beautiful arborescent Passi- 
flora (Astrophea) grows far larger than at San 
Antonio, and I could not help now and then 
stopping my horse under its stems, which here and 
there bent gracefully over Our path, to admire the 
large pendulous glaucous leaves and the clusters 
of white flowers ; but I sought in vain for ripe 
berries. In marshy places there are beds of rank 
ferns, and in pools an Eichhornia and a Pontederia. 
The common weeds of hot countries begin to 
appear, such as Asclepias citrassavica and Tiaridiuni 
Indicum, the latter of which I had not seen since 
leaving the Amazon. 
[After much delay at Bodegas, waiting for 
the small steamer, Guayaquil was reached on 
October 6, and a portion of the ripe seed sent, as 
instructed, to Jamaica. The young plants were 
not ready for transmission till the end of November, 
when Spruce returned up the river to Aguacatal, 
