(Reprinted from Bulletin op the Torrey botanical Club, July, 1888.) 
An Enumeration of the Plants Collected by Dr. H, H. Rushy in South 
America, 1885-1886,—I. 
GENERAL FEATURES OF THE REGION TRAVERSED. 
i 
The collections recorded in this series of papers were made 
during a two years journey along the Pacific Coast and across the 
continent of South America, the special object being the investi¬ 
gation of Medical Botany. 
The route of travel covered regions the most diverse as re¬ 
gards all the conditions of plant life. North of Guayaquil the 
coast is verdant, the luxuriant tropical vegetation reaching the 
very water’s edge. But a short distance south of that city be¬ 
gins an entirely different region. The eastern cordillera of the 
Andes divides South America into two portions, having almost 
nothing in common. While only a few miles in width, this cor¬ 
dillera marks differences in soil, climate, and general appearance, 
as great as any to be observed upon the globe. 
Upon the Pacific side there is a very general dearth of mois¬ 
ture, rain being in many places almost unknown, while upon the 
eastern slope rain is so constant that months may pass when the 
sun is seen for scarcely an entire hour, and the humidity is so great 
that clouds of rising vapor sometimes obscure the view of even 
the nearest objects. The laden clouds that sweep in from the 
tropical Atlantic lose little of their moisture in crossing the Ama¬ 
zonian basin ; any loss is but temporary, the equilibrium being at 
once restored by the soaking up of a fresh supply from the enor¬ 
mous water surface that the region presents. But immediately 
on reaching the mountains, great volumes of water are precipi¬ 
tated. The lightened clouds endeavor to escape upward, reach 
the colder strata, and suffer fresh precipitations. This process is 
continued over a belt of two hundred and fifty miles of steadily 
increasing elevation, until the winds which cross the cordillera 
