A BOTANIST*iJ lUMBLE IN CENTliAL AMEiUCA ; 
opportunity of taking a photographic group of these people; but I 
was sorry to find afterwards that the damp had so affected my dry 
plates as to render them entirely useless. The process of 
changing the plates at night which has to be done with the 
aid of a red lantern, excited considerable curiosity, and it 
probably left among them an impression which I would rather 
have avoided giving rise to, but we did our best to combat 
this through the medium of our interpreters. The remaining 
part of the day was spent in rambles in the woods in search 
of specimens, and I gathered sufficient material to keep me 
fully employed in securing it, for a great part of the evening. Of 
the work done by my friend in another direction, it is not my 
province to speak, but I may venture to say that his own 
special work was entered into with indefatigable zeal and energy, 
and let us hope, was productive of great good. Not only was he 
truly zealous in his own work, but his untiring efiorts in the'' 
endeavour to assist my labours, were of the greatest service and 
conduced in a great degree to the success of my mission. He 
aided me to the utmost and many specimens were secured which 
would otherwise have been passed by, had they not been detected 
by the vigilant eyes of my companion. Among the specimens 
here obtained were several species of Graminea?, and Cyperace^, 
with some splendid large Selaginellas. Going to bathe in the^^ 
river alone one evening, I entered the stream near the mission 
house at a shallow place, and was luxuriating in the delicious 
coolness of the water, when I suddenly found myself off my feet, 
and in a second was taken with a surprising swiftness into the 
middle of a deep whirling eddy; fortunately, I was able to swim, 
but still it required all my strength to make" the shore, which I at 
length reached in safety after having suffered considerable alarm, 
from the fact, that such places are the favourite resort of the 
Alligator, which is common to the river. The bank on which I 
landed was covered with the Selaginellas, and I found two 
species, that had it not been for my little contretemps, would 
probably have been overlooked. 
On the banks of the river and in the adjoining forests were 
seen several trees of Oastilloa elastica, from which is produced 
the Central American rubber, but they were all young and in 
consequence, were not bearing seeds. All the larger trees 
have been destroyed by the rubber gatherers, and it is only in 
localities several days’ journey inland that any trees exist of 
sufficient size to produce rubber in any large quantity. The 
localities are kept secret by the Spanish and Indian section of the 
community, so as to prevent encroachment upon what they deem to ■ 
be their exclusive right to cut and manufacture the article. These 
people bring down in canoes during the season, large quan- 
