Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, Volume 2 Being Records of Travel on the Amazon and its Tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Having previously embarked on a collecting expedition to the Pyrenees, backed by Sir William Hooker and George Bentham, the botanist Richard Spruce (1817-93) travelled in 1849 to South America, where he carried out unprecedented exploration among the diverse flora across the northern part of the continent. After his death, Spruce's writings on fifteen fruitful years of discovery were edited as a labour of love by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), whom Spruce had met in Santarem.

This two-volume work, first published in 1908, includes many of the author's exquisite illustrations. Showing the determination to reach plants in almost inaccessible areas, Spruce collected hundreds of species, many with medicinal properties, notably the quinine-yielding cinchona tree, as well as the datura and coca plants. Featuring four maps, Volume 2 includes discussion of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes and the cinchona forests of western Chimborazo.

Contents

15. From Barra do Rio Negro to Tarapoto, Peru
16. Residence at Tarapoto
17. Voyage in small canoes from Tarapoto to Canelos on the Bombonasa river
18. Through the forest on Canelos to Banos
19. Botanical excursions in the Andes of Ecuador
20. Ambato and the Cinchona forests of Alausí
21. The Cinchona forests of western Chimborazo
22. Spruce's last three years in South America
23. Letters and articles relating to his Amazonian travels
24. On ant-agency in plant-structure
25. On indigenous narcotics and stimulants, with their uses by the Indians
26. The women-warriors of the Amazon
27. The engraved rocks of the Rio Negro and Casiquiari
28. A hidden treasure of the Incas

Glossary of native names
Index

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