364 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
their flowers and Iruits, very few indeed have been 
infested by caterpillars. A tall Leguminous (tree or 
liana) or Bombaceous species would sometimes have 
caterpillars on it ; more rarely a Laurel or a Nut- 
meg ; but a Fig or a Guttifer never. A vast number 
of trees and lianas of all sizes are, indeed, excluded 
from serving as food to caterpillars by their strongly 
resinous or else acrid and poisonous juices, and 
many more on account of their hard, leathery leaves, 
which are untouched except, rarely, by minute 
caterpillars that eat themselves galleries in the 
parenchyma. 
Of plants which afford food for caterpillars, 
Leguminosse hold decidedly the first place ; next to 
these rank Mallow-like plants (including Malvaceae 
proper, Sterculiaceae, Buttneriaceae, and Tiliaceae) ; 
then Melastomaceae and Solanaceae. Caterpillars 
armed with stinging hairs seem peculiarly partial to 
Leguminosae, as I know to my cost, the bushy Inga 
trees in some parts being scarcely approachable 
when with flowers and young leaves. In the neigh- 
bourhood of Guayaquil children that stray under the 
Tamarind trees sometimes get severely stung by the 
hairy caterpillars that drop on them from the trees. 
Other orders of plants on which I have en- 
countered caterpillars are chiefly the following : — 
Among Endogens : Grasses, Sedges, Palms, and 
Aroids — on all rather rarely ; on Scitamineae and 
Musaceae more frequently. Among Exogens : 
Euphorbiaceae (principally on those with aromatic 
foliage); Samydeae; Bixaceae; Vochysiaceae ; Sapin- 
daceae (few) ; Malpighiaceae ; Anonaceae and Myris- 
ticeae (rarely) ; Anacardiaceae ; Ochnaceae (on very 
young leaves only, the adult foliage being hard and 
