[10] The mango of Asia is superior in size and flavor to that of America. It is eaten largely in Brazil by negroes and cattle. The cocoa-palm is also of Asiatic origin, and is most abundant in Ceylon. It has a swollen stem when young, but becomes straight and tall when mature. The flowers burst into a long plume of soft, cream-colored blossoms. It is worthy of remembrance that the most beautiful forms of vegetation in the tropics are at the same time most useful to man.
[11] Ferns constitute one sixth of the flora of South America; Spruce counted 140 species within the space of three square miles. Their limits of growth are 500 and 7000 feet above the sea.
[12] The altitude of 7000 feet is the usual limit of the rain-line on the west slope of the Andes. The condensation which produces rain takes place at the equator two or three times higher than in our latitude.
[13] From adoub, an Egyptian word still used by the Copts; carried by the Moors to Spain, thence to America; and from America the word has gone to the Sandwich Islands.
[14] This celebrated febrifuge was first taken to Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was named after the Countess of Chinchon, who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima. Afterward, when Cardinal de Lugo spread the knowledge of the remedy through France, and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin, it received the name of Jesuits' Bark. The French chemists, Pelletier and Caverton, discovered quinine in 1820.
[15] According to Sir J. Hooker, among the flowers which adorn the slopes of the Himalayas, rhododendrons occupy the most prominent place, and primroses next. There are no orchids, neither red gentians, but blue. Organic life ceases 3000 feet lower than on the Andes; yet it is affirmed that flowering plants occur at the height of 18,460 feet, which is equivalent to the summit of Chimborazo in point of temperature! The polylepis (P. racemosa) is one of the Sanguisorbaceæ; in Quichua it is Sachaquinoa.
[16] This is shortened in parlance to Tacunga. The full name, according to La Condamine, is Llacta-cunga, llacta meaning country, and cunga, neck.
[17] Sometimes called Chisinche.
[18] The son of his Quito love. The name was first written Atauhuallpa, meaning fortunate in war; after the fratricide, he was called Atahuallpa, or game-cock. He was the Boabdil of this occidental Granada. He is called traitor by Peruvian writers, and is not admitted by them into the list of their Incas.
[19] Geografia de la República del Ecuador, por Dr. Villavicencio. This work abounds with erroneous and exaggerated statements, but it is nevertheless a valuable contribution to Ecuadorian literature.