them fall on sheets spread on the ground to receive them, so that the few loose seeds shaken out by the fall were not lost. The capsules were afterwards spread out to dry for some days on the same sheets. In September Mr. Spruce went across to the valley of the San Antonio, to the southward, in order to secure additional seeds from "red-bark" trees there, leaving Mr. Cross to watch over the rooting of the cuttings at Limon. Between the 14th and 19th he gathered 500 wellgrown capsules at San Antonio, in addition to 2000 already collected at Limon. Good capsules contain forty seeds each, so that at least 100,000 well-ripened and well-dried seeds were now gathered; and on the 28th of September Mr. Spruce started for Guayaquil. In November he proceeded up the river again, and purchased one of the rafts at Ventanas, which are used for conveying cacao to Guayaquil. It was composed of twelve trunks of raft-wood, sixty-three to sixty-six feet long and one foot in diameter, kept in their places by shorter pieces tied transversely, and covered with bamboo planking, fenced round with rails to a height of three feet, and roofed over. The rope used for binding the parts of the raft together was the twining stem of a Bignonia. The Wardian cases were got ready on the raft at Ventanas, and Mr. Cross arrived with the plants from Limon on the 13th of December, and established them in the cases to the number of 637.

After encountering several dangers and mishaps in navigating the river, the raft with its precious freight reached Guayaquil on the 27th of December; and the plants were

Mr. Cross sowed eight of the seeds; one began to germinate on the fourth day, and at the end of a fortnight four seeds had pushed their radicles. In three weeks one had the seed-leaves completely developed; and on the twenty-eighth day after sowing, the last of the eight pushed its radicle. Eight chinchona-seeds, gathered by Mr.

Spruce in 1859, were sown at Guayaquil, which had remained nine months in his herbarium. Of these four germinated, which clearly shows that wellripened and properly-dried seeds do not lose their vitality for a much longer period than their excessive delicacy would lead one to suspect.

safely embarked on board the steamer, in charge of Mr. Cross, on the 2nd of January, 1861.

Thus skilfully and successfully did Mr. Spruce, and his able colleagues, perform this most difficult and important service. Mr. Spruce, during the whole time that he was in the chinchona forests, made most careful meteorological observations. From June 19th to December 8th the results of observations of the thermometer were as follows:

On the western side of the Quitenian Andes, south of the Equator, the summer or dry season lasts from June to December, the remaining five months constituting the wet season. In the summer, at Limon, the early part of the day is often sunny, and fogs come on in the afternoon and night; but in the wet season there are fogs in the morning, and heavy rains during the rest of the day and night.

A perusal of the foregoing pages, which are nothing more than a brief abstract from Mr. Spruce's official reports, cannot fail to impress the reader with the valuable nature of the service which has been performed, and with the energy and fortitude, combined with great skill and ability, which enabled Mr. Spruce to overcome so many difficulties; and almost equal praise is due to Mr. Cross. But in recounting these arduous labours, only half of Mr. Spruce's services have been recorded. That gentleman is an accomplished botanist, and most accurate observer; and he has supplied us with a detailed report which, I do not hesitate to say, contains a larger amount of valuable information on the chinchona-forests than any account which has yet appeared in Europe. In addition

Y

to the narrative of his proceedings, and his observations on the "red-bark" tree, Mr. Spruce here gives a minute account of the vegetation of the "red-bark" forests of Chimborazo, a detailed meteorological journal, and important remarks on

the climate and soil.5

My apprehensions respecting the feelings of the natives, when our proceedings became known, were fully justified by what took place in Ecuador, as well as in Peru. But the South Americans are, as a rule, remarkable for the slowness of their movements; and it was not until May 1st, 1861, that the legislature of Ecuador decreed that every person, whether foreigner or native, should be forbidden to make collections of plants, cuttings, or seeds of the quina-tree; and that precautions should be taken to prevent those articles from passing the ports and frontiers of the Republic. A fine of 100 dollars on every plant, and every drachm of seed, was imposed on those who attempted to break this decree. But by May 1st, 1861, the plants and seeds of the quina-tree were safe on the Neilgherry hills, in Southern India.

While Mr. Spruce was engaged in collecting these seeds and plants in the forests at the foot of Chimborazo, Mr. Pritchett, whose services I had secured for the Huanuco region in Northern Peru, was employed on the species of chinchona yielding grey bark.

Mr. Pritchett left Lima on the 18th of May, 1860, and arrived in the town of Huanuco, the centre of the grey-bark region, on the 28th, where he made the necessary preparations for a journey into the neighbouring forests. On the 9th of June he set out for the mountain-range of Carpis, to the northward, where there are several species of chinchona. The

5 1. Notes of a visit to the Chinchona | Forests, by R. Spruce, Esq., printed by the Linnæan Society, vol. iv. of their Proceedings.

2. Mr. Spruce's Report to the Under Secretary of State for India, Oct. 12,

1860.

3. Report of the Expedition to procure Plants and Seeds of the Chinchona succirubra, by R. Spruce, Esq., Sept. 22, 1861.