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266 NOTES OF A BOTANIST
on ground which slopes down to the right bank of the Chimbo,
at an elevation of about 9000 feet. As it is on the main road
leading from Guayaquil to the interior, it presents in time of peace
a very lively aspect in the dry season, when it is constantly full
of travellers and beasts of burden ; but when we reached it there
were not the least signs of traffic, and only soldiers were to be
seen in the streets. The temperature is slightly warmer than that
of Quito, and the adjacent hills are grassy, where not under culti-
vation. From the little I could see of the indigenous vegetation,
it appeared interesting. A large Thalictrum was abundant, as
was also a sarmentose Labiate, with spikes of secund scarlet
flowers, and a Tagetes, called, aptly enough, Allpa-anis (earth
aniseed), from its scent and its lowly habit.
I was detained several days at Guaranda, partly in purchasing
provisions for the forest, including an ox to be taken alive to our
rendezvous, and partly in the vain attempt to procure licence for
our cascarilleros (who had lately all been enrolled either in the
line or the militia) to proceed to the forest ; but I had to con-
tent myself with the assurance that, until the country was delivered
from its present straits, not a single citizen could be
spared for any other service. Only one of the cascarilleros, whose
rancho we were to occupy, actually accompanied us to Limon,
whether with leave or without I never knew, and he was there too
much occupied in distilling cane-brandy, and in drinking no small
portion of it himself, to be of the slightest use to us in seeking
I secured
plants and seeds. Through Dr. Neyra's intervention,
the services of four Indians of Guanujo, and they proved of the
greatest use to us, especially after we began to rear the Bark
plants.
As far as Guaranda, two of our boxes had been carried by each
beast of burden, but thenceforward, on account of the straitness
of the path, they had to be carried singly. On the steep, narrow,
and slippery tracks which traverse the western slope of the
Quitonian Andes, the beasts of burden are chiefly bulls, called
cabrestillos, whose cloven hoofs enable them to descend with
greater security than even mules. Our provision of potatoes,
peas, and barley-meal, etc., had to be carried in sacks so small
that two of them placed on the back of each cabrestillo did not
project beyond the animal's sides.
We set forth from Guaranda on the xyth of June, the direction
of our route being first northerly, as far as the adjacent village of
Guanujo, and then north-west to the pass of Llullundengo, on a
ridge of Chimborazo, nearly in front of the Ensillada (from which
the deep, wide valley of Guaranda separates it), and at a height
of about 12,000 feet. Having surmounted this, we entered on
the most precipitous and dangerous descent I have ever passed.
The track leads straight down a narrow ridge, varied at wide