THE CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION 



37 



Two miles north of Cinchona and at the same level, 5,000 feet, there 

 is a notch in the main mountain range known as Morce's Gap. As one 

 passes northward through this gap one sees the aspect of the vegetation 

 change with surprising suddenness from that characteristic of the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of Cinchona. Here, on the windward side of the 

 mountains, everything reeks with moisture, for during most of the year 

 clouds or mist drift through these gaps continuously from the cool north 

 side of the mountains. Eain falls almost daily for much of the year, 



Bereies and Flowers of Coffee. 



and even when it is not raining the clouds form and float through these 

 dark forests. Ferns are in their glory here in this dense montane rain 

 forest. There are scores of tree ferns, of half a dozen species, with 

 stems three to six inches thick and ten to thirty feet high. Their 

 straight slender trunks contrast strikingly with the forked, twisted 

 branches of the Podocarpus, prune and other trees among which they 

 are scattered. Most of the trees on some half-acre patches are tree ferns 

 of the genera Alsophila or Cyatliea. Their beautiful umbrella-like 

 crowns are seen best from a hillside above them, or when their delicate 

 plumes are outlined against the sky. Under these ferns and the other 



