April i, 1S95.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
with present clay history and life ; archajology with 
agriculture ; travel incidents with wayside bo- 
tanical excursions on flowers, fruit and forest. 
Here is his introduction to the capital of Peru — 
and to the Andes : — 
The population of Lima mny he about 130,000, but 
no one knows exactly, as they have not succeeded in 
taking a census for many years. The last attempt 
showed something like eiyht ladies to every man, and 
the ladies are as famous for their beauty and energy 
as the men are for their feebleness. The marriages 
seem only to number about 83 per annum, or less than 
1 per 1,000, not a very prosperous sign. 
Now for the hills. By rail to Chicla, 87 miles, thence 
on mulc-back. This railway, it will be remembered, is, 
without any exception, the highest in the world, and 
the engineering the most audacious. " We know of no 
difficulties," the consulting engineer said to me; " we 
would hang the rails from balloons if necessary !" 
"When rather more than half-way to Chicla we reach 
Matucana station, at an altitude of 7,788 feet above sea 
level, and here we resolved to stop for two days in order 
to get accustomed (o the rarilied air. But we were not 
idle. Procuringmules, we proceeded to ascend the sur- 
rounding mountains. Matucana may be described as 
a village of 2">0 inhabitants, situated at the bottom of 
a basin only a few hundred yards wide, but widening 
out to . r >0 miles at the upper ritn, which is covered with 
snow. The hi'ls rise at an angle of from 45 degrees to 
7-"> degrees, and the so-called roads are really a terror 
to think of. In the distance the mountains of Peru, 
or the Andes, look as bleak and barren as Aden, and 
most globe-trotters who take a passing glimpse at them 
say they are so ; but such is not the case. I have not 
yet seen an acre upon which the botanist might not 
revel, and but for the fact that I had to watch with 
constant dread the feet of my mule, I have never spent 
a more intensely interesting afternoon than I did 
during this memorable ride. Up, up, we went, zig- 
zagging on path* often not more than 18 inches wide, 
and sloping over chasms that made one blind to look 
down. Speak o' " loupin' owre a linn "! here is a 
chance for any love-sick Duncan I 
But oh ! the (lowers, the sweet flowers ! who could 
pass these unheeded '/ So many old friends, too, in all 
the glory of their own native home, to welcome us, and 
indicate the attitude more correctly than any of our 
auerei Is. 
We next halted at Chicla : altitude, 12,215 feet above 
sea level. A dreary enough spot, where passengers not 
infrequently get their first experience of sonvche, or 
mountain sickness, caused by the rarified air, the dis- 
agreeable symptoms being headache, vomiting, and 
bleeding at the ears and nose, the only cure being a 
greater atmospheric pressure. Horses and mules from 
the 7 low country frequently drop down dead here from 
failure of the heart's action. 
Leaving Chicla, the real tug of war begins ; the crest 
of the Cordilleras has to be encountered and crossed. 
A wretched road, mado worse by the dehris from the 
railway, which, for the first 15 miles, wo saw being 
coustiiicted still far abovo us. the navvies hung over 
the cliffs by ropes, looking like venturesome peas. 
Higher and still higher goes this extraprdinaiy zig- 
zagging railway, boring into the bowels of the moun- 
tains and emerging again at least a dozen times before 
it takes its final plunge for the eastern side of the 
Andes. Meanwhile, wo continue our scramble to tho 
top of the ridge, 17,000 feet above sea level. But there 
is now before us a tableland as far as the best eyes can 
reach and ten times further, with its hills and dales, 
lochs and rivers, more than equal in extent to Great 
Britain itsef, at an average height of about 13,000 feet 
above sea level. 
Here is the home of the gentle llama, a sort of 
link between tho camel and tho sheep, the wool of 
which is so much appreciated; tho paco also, which 
supplies the world with alpaca; and their more timid 
relative, tho vicuna, with wool still more valuable. 
Here and there we come iipi.n the remains of roads 
ami crumbling ruins, indicating a civilisation which 
ni:i) date back thousands of years, even before tho 
advent of t,b,c Inctv, 
Of human inhabitants there are now comparatively 
few, but such as there are, are interesting specimens 
of sturdy little Highlanders. The women, particu- 
larly, are admirable examples of a hardy, industrious 
race. No finer female peasantry in the world, I 
should say. The chief town of this region is Tarma, 
about 200 miles inland, altitude 9,800 feet, popula- 
tion about 8,000. We stayed for some days here 
greatly enjoying its splendid climate — a paradise for 
some consumptive patients. Excellent wheat and 
barley are grown here. This is also the home of 
the potato, it having been cultivated here as care- 
fully as it now is in Europe, perhaps hundreds of 
years before America was discovered by Europeans. 
"Papa" they are still called being the old Iuca name 
of the tuber ; and the quality is fully equal to the 
best we have produced here ; moreover, they have 
some varieties better than any of ours, one of which 
I hope to introduce to Scotland. 
Our aneroids indicate an altitude of 2,650 feet, and 
the moist steamy heat tells us that we are truly in the 
tropics. The district is called Chanchamayo, where for 
20 yeai-s a number of Frenchmen and Italians have 
been trying their hand at coffee, indigo and sugar-cane 
growing, it must be confessed with very indifferent suc- 
cess, though, certes, 
" If vain their toil, 
They ought to blame the culture, not the soil." 
But these men have been sent out without much pre- 
vious training. " That is a splendid specimen of cin- 
chona," we said to a planter, pointing to a tree near his 
bungalow. " Cinchona !" he exclaimed, in real amaze- 
ment, " I have been 15 years here, and never knew 
had been cutting down and burning cinchona trees." 
We follow our author next down to the Perene 
and along the course of that river, until they 
come to a point only a thousand feet above 
sea-level although the mouth of the Amazon is 
still 3,000 miles distant. Here there are some 
of the economic products and interesting vege- 
tation noted : — 
"The graceful ivory palm (phytelephas), may also 
be seen in small groups, indicating the very richest 
spots of soil. Near to this may be found a solitary 
cacao ( theobiamaj, 30 to 40 inches in circumference) 
and rising to the mature height of 50 feet. 
" Coffee, of course, is not found wild here, but at 
intervals we came upon gigantic specimens of the 
cinchona, both calisaya and succirubra, 6 feet in 
circumference. The walnut of Peru, an undescribed 
species of Juglams, is frequently seen in the Perene 
Vailey, growing to a height of 60 to 70 feet. Satin* 
wood there is also, but not the satinwood of Ceylcn 
(cldorosc//lon) ; for though the wood looks similar) 
the family (ehenacca) is in no way related to or.r 
Ceylon tree. The indigenous coca, as an undergrowth) 
we rarely came across, except in semi-cultivated 
patches. Gigantic cottons, the screw pine (carhiAovia ) 
— from which the famous Panama hat is made — the 
grand scarlet flowering erythrina, aud another tall 
and brilliant yellow-flowering tree — probably the 
laburnum of Peru— add much to the beauty of the 
scene. Many other leguminous plants we also noted, 
particularly calliandra and clitoria. 
Innumerable orchids, mosses, and ferns, sufficiently 
indicated the humid nature of the climate. Prob- 
ably the chief distinguishing feature in Peruvian 
vegetation is that it is an essentially flowering and 
fruit bearing vegetation, rather thau the excessively 
leaf-producing, which so distinguishes the luxuriant 
greenery in Panama, the West Indies, and Ceylon, 
Peru, undoubtedly, possesses a richer soil, aud a climate 
more favourable to fruit-bearing; while compared 
with the masaivenesa aud grandeur of the Trans- 
Andean forest monarchs, the jungle trees of India 
and Ceylou are somewhat diminutive. A few plants 
wo missed; tho beautiful and useful yellow bamboo 
is not there, nor are tho palmyra, talipot, and coco- 
nut palms. The jak and bread-fruit trees might also 
bo introduced with great advantage. The cultivated 
grasses of tho East, the Guinea and Mauritius KTM8i 
