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304 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap. 
notion is that I had better pass the winter at Piura, 
which is just within the rainless region on the coast 
of Peru. 
Report [continued) 
The raft was composed of twelve trunks of raft- 
wood, 63 to 66 feet long, and about a foot in 
diameter, ranged longitudinally, so as to occupy a 
width of. 15 feet, and kept in their places by five 
shorter pieces tied transversely and widely apart, 
extending nearly to the root end of the trunks, but 
leaving a considerable space free towards their 
point, for the convenience of working the raft. 
The five cross pieces were covered with bamboo 
planking, so as to form a floor 36 feet long by 
10^ feet broad, which was fenced round with rails 
to a height of 3 feet, and the whole roofed over 
and thatched with leaves of Maranta Vijao. For 
carrying cacao, the fence has to be lined with 
bamboo boards, so as to form, with the flooring, a 
sort of large bin. The rope used in binding to- 
gether the constituent parts of the raft was the 
twining stem of a Bignonia, nearly terete, but 
marked by four raised lines, overlying four deep 
grooves in the substance of the stem, and alter- 
nating with four shallower grooves. When the 
stem is twisted, to enable it to be tied, it splits 
lengthwise along those grooves into eight strips, 
which, however, still pull together, and offer very 
great resistance to transverse fracture.^ 
^ I have long known that the strongest of all lianas are Bignonias, and I 
have many times trusted my life and goods to their strength. In the malos 
pasos of the Huallaga, canoes are dragged up the most dangerous places by 
means of from one to four stems of Bignonia, according to the size of the 
