3i6 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
from a good way up the various rivers, and there are many wild 
fruits. The latter include two "cherries"; one of them is so like 
the fruit of Averrhoa Bilitnbi (Oxalideae) in appearance that I did 
not think it could be anything else. The tree abounds at Daule 
and is now in flower ; it is a Combretacea, allied to Terminalia ! 
The other cherry is a Malpighiacea — very different from the 
Bunchosias or "Friar's plums," and probably a Byrsonima. Two 
"plums" are surely species of Spondias. A drupe, called Pechiche, 
the size of a large cherry, but black, and with a mawkish sweet 
taste, though excellent for preserve, is the fruit of a Vitex. There 
are also many Sapotaceous fruits not seen elsewhere. I hope to 
make them all out and to send specimens of the fruits in spirit. 
I have unfortunately very little strength left for work of any kind, 
and the squalls that come on suddenly when the sun is hot and 
penetrate the chinks of these bamboo walls make me feel some- 
times as "roomackity " as I did in the Sierra. Piura would have 
been the place for me — they say the most obstinate rheumatisms 
can't withstand the climate of Piura. But I do not like the idea 
of living in the midst of a desert. 
I was beginning to work a mon ordinaire when I had the 
misfortune to scald my right foot severely, and had to endure a 
tedious vesication and afterwards a painful ulceration. Eighteen 
days of it stretched in a hammock, and unable to tread the 
ground. I did not mind the pain so much as the lost time. 
To Mr. John Teas dale 
Guayaquil, y^/;?^ 2 2, 1861. 
... It is singular that the greatest range of 
temperature occurs here in the summer or dry 
season, while in the wet season it is more equable 
but more oppressive. We are now entering on the 
summer, and it is surprising how rapidly the water 
and mud dry up off the savannas ; for no more 
rain falls, and we begin to have strong westerly 
breezes, continuing sometimes through the night. 
Guayaquil is not unhealthy from June to January, 
and if they had built the city lower down the Gulf 
it might have been healthy all the year round. 
The island of Puna, where Pizarro first landed, is 
