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of this plant, which have been above described, are very un- 
like those mentioned by Velasco, it is quite evident that it was 
not the Cuenca plant, but a different vegetable that was given 
by the Indian to the lay-jesuit, and Monsieur Marcucci is of 
opinion that the Indian's plant was in all probability procured, 
as we know that Senor Borrero's had been, from the skirts of 
the great Chimborazo, which are considerably less distant by 
going along the bye-paths known to the aborigines, than by the 
common road. Of the Cuenca plant, inert as it is, I am glad 
to say that, through the aid of my friend, Don Alejo de Ybarra 
y Sorzano, I have likewise received specimens taken from a 
quantity sent hither from Guayaquil (to be forwarded to a 
gentleman in Columbia, who had written for the Cuichun- 
chulli,) under the supposition of its being the true or medici- 
nal plant; and as these specimens had leaves, flowers, &c. it 
has been in my power to ascertain their botanical character, 
which I think it advisable to mention here, for the chance of 
its being copied into other publications, and of its thus becom- 
ing sufficiently known to prevent the recurrence of mistakes 
so distressing as happened in the instances of Senor Borrero's 
children, and of the other individuals to whom allusion has 
already been made. The Cuenca plant belongs to the Linnaean 
class and order of Didynamia gymnospermia, and to the na- 
tural order Labiatse; but it does not correspond in its charac- 
ters with any of the genera which I find described by authors 
under those heads, and it consequently seems to form a new 
genus, whose distinguishing characters may be thus defined, 
viz.: 
Calyx campanulate, many-striate, five-toothed, teeth equal, 
mucronate; corolla, upper lip quadrified, lower rounded con- 
cave. 
In addition to the Cuichunchulli of Cuenca, and to that 
brought from Riobamba by Monsieur Marcucci, which will 
be presently adverted to, I learn that a third plant bearing the 
same name has been mentioned as growing at Purace, in the 
Canton of Popayan, and that this, having been examined by 
Professor Don Juan Maria Cespedes, proved to be the same 
