THE FLOEA OF PANAMA. 163 



respect is the European more disappointed : from cultivating in his gardens none save 

 the choicest and most brilliant flowers which the regions of the sun are capable of 

 producing ; from seeing on the stage tropical scenery, which looks more like a repre- 

 sentation of fairyland than of sublunar places ; and from reading those highly-coloured 

 accounts with which many travellers have endeavoured to embellish their narratives — ■ 

 his imagination has drawn a picture of equinoctial countries which a comparison with 

 nature at once demolishes. The espave (Anacardium rhinocarpus) and the corotu 

 (Enterolobium schomburgkii) are amongst the most gigantic trees, attaining a height of 

 from 90 to 130 feet, and a circumference of from 24 to 30 feet; and no better estimate 

 can be formed of their size than by an inspection of the port of Panama, where vessels 

 of twelve tons burden, made of a single trunk, are riding at anchor. The forests 

 occasionally consist of only a single species of tree, but generally they are composed of 

 different kinds, the principal forms belonging to Sterculiacese, Tiliaceae, Mimosese, 

 Papilionacese, Euphorbiacese, Anacardiaceae, Rubiaceae, Myrtacese, and Melastomacese ; 

 these, and the prevalence of palms, tree-ferns, Scitaininese, and Aroidese, stamp on 

 them the real tropical character. 



"Mountains exceeding 2000 feet in elevation, situated principally in Western 

 Veraguas, possess a vegetation which resembles in many respects that of the Mexican 

 highlands ; one in which the forms of the torrid region are harmoniously blended with 

 those of the temperate. Alders and blackberries are found with fuchsias and salvias ; 

 the brake grows in company with lupins and ageratums ; oaks and palms are inter- 

 mingled ; fine large flowers are abundant. The genera represented are Styrax, Bonde- 

 letia, Salvia, Lopezia, Fuchsia, Centradenia, Ageratum, Conostegia, Lupinus, Hypericum, 

 Freziera, Galium, Smilax, Euphorbia, Bhopala, Equisetum, Clematis, Chorisia, Verbena, 

 Condaminea, Inga, Solanum, &c. The oaks, like most tropical ones, are scarcely 

 higher than 30 feet, resembling neither in size nor in grandeur those which our heathen 

 forefathers worshipped ; their branches are smooth and devoid of that rugged appear- 

 ance which renders those of the northern species so picturesque." 



A further contribution to the botanical geography of Northern Panama by Dr. Moritz 

 Wagner* supplements the foregoing, though the author has made some singular mistakes 

 in the nomenclature of his plants, most of which, however, we have been able to correct. 



"This flora [Chiriqui] is essentially the same as that of Eastern tropical South 

 America, except in the higher regions between 3000 and 9000 feet f , where a certain 

 number of species occur which are either common to Mexico and Guatemala or peculiar 

 to this province alone. The characteristic species of the flora of this province as well 

 as of that of the whole of Central America approach most nearly to those of Brazil, 



* " Physisch-geographische Skizje der Provinz Chiriqui," Petermann's ' Geographische Mittheilungen,' 1863, 

 pp. 280-299, 

 f The 3 ia probably a misprint for 8. 



