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212 NOTES OF A BOTANIST
Whatever steps you think necessary to take for
lessening your labour in the distribution of my
plants will meet my cheerful acquiescence. ... I
am deeply thankful to you for having bestowed so
much of your valuable time on my plants ; but, on
my part, I can truly say that I have had no greater
stimulus in collecting than to think, whenever 1
have gathered a new or strange plant, " This will
surely please
Mr. Bentham."
I wrote to you in June last, on the occasion of
dispatching to you three cases of plants from
Ambato. .
. .
I am sorry the collection does not contain more
trees ; but the number of species of trees is actually
much fewer in cold regions than in warm, and I
miss much here the excellent climbers (Indians, I
mean, not lianas) I used to have on the Uaupes and
Rio Negro. However, if I remain in the country,
not many of the trees shall escape
me. There are
a great many arborescent Composite, of which I
have as yet taken very few do you think I ought
to gather them all ?
My object in visiting Quito was partly to get
my few books bound and a few clothes made, for
in so many years in the forest all I had with me
had got into a very dilapidated state ; as also to
such substitutes as I could for the warm under-
get
clothing sent out by yourself and Mr. Pritchett and
lost on the way. I hope also to herborise a little
on the western side of the Cordillera, but I have
been seriously ill, and am still in so much pain
that I cannot write for more than a few minutes
together.