8o 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
the latter with those of the Amazon will not be 
uninteresting. And first I would remark on what 
seems to me a defect in their management, in both 
localities, namely, the overcrowding of the plants, 
which (if I may trust to my memory) is more 
excessive at Guayaquil than on the Amazon. It 
is notable to see solitary trees near houses, and 
rows of trees adjacent to streams and roads, heavily 
laden with corpulent fruits ; whereas in the centre 
of the plantations, where the trees stand so close 
together that their branches interlace, and the 
broad leaves completely shut out the sun's rays — 
where there is no circulation in the dank, mouldy- 
smelling air that hangs over the ground — a large 
proportion of the flowers drop off without being 
fertilised, and the few fruits that do reach maturity 
are more slender, and the seeds smaller and thinner, 
than on those trees to which light and air have had 
free access. A well -grown Cacao tree, in fact, 
affords of itself sufficient shade to its trunk and 
principal branches, whereon (as is well known) 
the flowers and fruits chiefly grow ; and there is 
no need to hem it in so with other trees as to cut 
off the small portion of air and light that would 
otherwise penetrate under its drooping branches. 
The planters themselves have not failed to note 
the greater yield of the trees along the skirts of 
the plantations, but without attributing it to the 
true cause ; and they think it necessary to go on 
planting the trees at just the same distance apart 
as their forefathers did. 
As we approached Obidos we saw before us a 
steep cliff, rising to perhaps 150 feet above the 
