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THE FORESTS OF ALAUSI 247
Tecoma, not parallel to them, as in Delostoma and
Bignonia,
So soon as the last soldier had passed, I put in
execution my project of visiting the forests producing
the Cascarilla scrrana or Hill Bark, which
is found at 8500 to 9000 feet on both sides of the
river Chanchan. I went first to the forest of
Llalla, at the foot of Azuay, and only a
than two hours' journey from Guataxi.
little more
Here there
is a cattle-farm and a few Indian chacras, in one of
which I established myself. I found a rather in-
teresting vegetation, and this consoled me for my
wretched quarters in a hut dark and smoky, and so
low that I could not stand erect. We had happened
on a windy time, and as the walls and roof were
full of chinks, the violent wind which got up at
midnight starved us beneath all our blankets and
ponchos. After sunrise there was a brief lull, and
then it came on again to blow from the same
quarter (west, with a slight touch of northing), and
so continued through the day. We had no rain
during the five days of our stay, although the
storms on the farther side of Azuay often overlap
as far as Llalla, so that from Guataxi we could see
it raining in this hill-forest, when not a drop fell in
the lower grounds ;
and
even when it does not
rain the forest is generally enveloped in mist.
This constant supply of moisture renders the vegetation
more vigorous than in the dry grounds
below, and is the cause why the trees are so
thickly clad with mosses that it is difficult to one's way through them.
push
Two mosses, whose
long slender stems hang
clown like a beard from
the branches, bore here abundance of fruit, which