344 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
of them are so interesting, and have such a close 
relation to his work in South America, that I give 
here some extracts from them, adding a few ex- 
planatory words where necessary. 
The first is from one written about six months 
after his return home, and is characteristic of his 
intense love of nature.] 
Kew, Dec. 20, 1864. 
I am thankful we are so near the shortest day. 
It is an awful sight to me to see that the sun at 
noon barely rises as high as the weathercock on 
Kew Church steeple (seen from the opposite side 
of the green) — and the poor skeletons of trees ! 
I have not seen trees without leaves for more than 
fifteen years. 
[This was specially interesting to myself because, 
on my return from the Amazon in October 1852, 
I was at once struck by two things — the general 
smallness of the trees, and even more by the low 
sun at noon, and especially by the fact of its giving 
hardly any heat, so that it seemed most surprising 
how any vegetation could continue to grow and 
thrive under such harsh conditions. 
Although Spruce had made Ambato his head- 
quarters for nearly three years, I have found in none 
of his letters any reference to what accommodation he 
had there or to the people he lived with, except the 
one remark (in a letter to his friend Teasdale) that 
his landlord there was "one of the best men in 
the place." But as he was often away collecting 
at Bafios, Quito, Riobamba, and other places, as 
well as in the forests around Tunguragua and the 
