50 JUNGLE ISLAND 



made a good photograph (Fig. 24). Perched 

 among the branches are plants that look like the 

 stiff tuft of leaves growing out of a pineapple. 

 Their cupped leaves catch and hold water that 

 helps them through the dry season. Flies, ants, 

 and other insects drown in the water and are 

 absorbed by the plant for food. 



Perhaps the most beautiful of the tree plants 

 are the orchids, which send up from their leaf 

 rosettes a slender stalk, crowned with yellow or 

 lavender flowers. If you cut out a large chip of 

 the wood to which they are fastened, so that the 

 plant itself is not disturbed, you can carry it away 

 without harming it. Many verandas in Ancon 

 have these lasting bouquets hung against their 

 walls. In this moist climate they bloom on 

 without attention. 



At the top of my spike ladder I could again get 

 a glimpse of Gatun Lake. The rest of the view 

 was jungle roof, much as it appeared from the 

 Canal. Here and there were other trees as high 

 as mine, and in February some of them were 

 gorgeous masses of yellow blossom. These were 

 the guayacan (wy-a-con) trees, very hard-wooded. 

 The wood is so hard that cart wheels are made of 

 it simply by means of cutting off a round of the 

 tree trunk, trimming it, and boring an axle hole 

 through the center. Santiago told me about it. 

 "Can't drive nail in it. Boss Doctor. Must use 

 screw. Oh, hard, hard, hard!" 



