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1 66 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
On the morning of the tenth day after the death of
her companions she arrived at the bank of the
river, just at the moment when two Indians were
embarking in a boat. These good people succoured
her and conducted her to Andoas, whence
she could continue her journey to La Laguna, and
from there descend into the valley of the Amazon
as far as Cayenne, where her husband was expecting
her. During the time that she had wandered
lost in the forest of Canelos, her hair had become
and to the end of her life she
perfectly white ;
could never speak, nor even think, of those terrible
days without a shudder. Every time that the
author recalls the calamities
lady
with which this poor
was overwhelmed, he feels that his own
sufferings in the same region were but very
inconsiderable.
But to treat now of the vegetation. He does not
think that he is mistaken when he claims for the
forest of Canelos the honour of being the richest
cryptogamic locality on the surface of the globe.
The trees even, in certain parts, seem to serve no
other purpose than to support ferns, mosses, and
lichens. The epiphytic ferns, which are the most
abundant, are principally Hymenophyllese and Poly-
podium (in the widest acceptation of the term).
Among the ferns growing upon the ground there
are some that attain a height which is almost
gigantic : they
belong to the genera Marattia,
the really arbor-
Hypolepis, Litobrochia, etc. ; but
escent species come behind those of Tarapoto in
variety. Among the mosses, the genera Hookeria
and Lepidopilum occupy the first place, and he was
able to enrich them with several new species.