The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



VoL IV. SEPTEMBER, 1901. No. 9. 



NOTES ON TREES OF CUBA. 

 By De. Valery Havard, Surgeon, U. S. A. 



HAVANA, on the northern shore of Cuba, is on the 23rd degree of 

 latitude, and therefore just within the tropics. Santiago, on the 

 southern shore, is on the 20th degree. The temperature of the 

 island, in the shade, seldom rises above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and 

 hardly ever falls below 65 degrees at Santiago, or 55 degrees at Havana. 

 So far as temperature is concerned, then, Cuba is a tropical island, but 

 its rather limited and unevenly distributed rainfall prevents the vege- 

 tation, in spite of a generally fertile soil, from acquiring the luxuriance 

 and density which we expect in such latitudes. The mean rainfall for 

 Havana for the past 28 years, is 51.73 inches, which is less than that of 

 the southern Atlantic States, while the evaporation due to a constantly 

 high temperature is much more active. More than two-thirds of this 

 amount falls from May to October, the winter and spring being often 

 rainless for weeks, when crops and plantations are liable to suffer se- 

 verely from continued drought. 



Cuban vegetation may be said to occupy an intermediate position 

 between that of the Gulf States and that of Venezuela and Guiana. 

 Although varied and interesting, it does not equal the richness of the 

 Blue Mountain one of Jamaica, nor that of the Central American States, 

 and has but little to compare with the magnificence of equatorial forests. 



Ornamental Trees. 



Of all the trees of Cuba the first place belongs to the appropriately- 

 named royal palm, Oreodoxa regia* the most striking vegetable feature 



* No attempt has been made to revise names and apply the laws of modern no- 

 menclature. 



