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304 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
notion is that I had better pass the winter at Piura,
which is just within the rainless region on the coast
of Peru.
The raft was composed
REPORT (continued]
of twelve trunks of raft-
wood, 63 to 66 feet long, and about a foot in
diameter, ranged longitudinally, so as to occupy a
width of 15 feet, and kept in their places by five
shorter pieces tied transversely and widely apart,
extending nearly to the root end of the trunks, but
leaving a considerable space free towards their
point,
for the
The five cross
convenience
pieces were
of working the raft.
covered with bamboo
planking, so as to form a floor 36 feet long by
iCHj- feet broad, which was fenced round with rails
to a height of 3 feet, and the whole roofed over
and thatched with leaves of Maranta Vijao. For
carrying cacao, the fence has to be lined with
bamboo boards, so as to form, with the flooring, a
sort of large bin. The rope used in binding to-
of the raft was the
gether the constituent parts
twining stem of a Bignonia, nearly terete, but
marked by four raised lines, overlying four deep
grooves in the substance of the stem, and alter-
nating with four shallower grooves. When the
stem is twisted, to enable it to be tied, it splits
lengthwise along those grooves into eight strips,
which, however, still pull together, and offer very
great
1
resistance to transverse fracture. 1
I have long known that the strongest of all lianas are Bignonias, and I
have many times trusted my life and goods to their strength. In the malos
pasos of the Huallaga, canoes are dragged up the most dangerous places by
means of from one to four stems of Bignonia, according to the size of the