98 Naturalist at Large 



to offer for the development of what is now one of the 

 great tropical gardens of the world. 



Harvard House, its laboratory, airy dining hall, and 

 accommodations for six persons soon became outgrown, 

 for while this offered sufficient accommodation for the 

 visitors who came during the wintertime, in summer groups 

 of students with an instructor began making increasing use 

 of our facihties. So then Mrs. Atkins and I built Casa Cata- 

 lina on the top of a high ridge looking out over the Gar- 

 den to the Trinidad Mountains. Here there are a good 

 big dormitory and several private rooms, so that now we 

 can take care of as many students as we are ever likely 

 to have. 



Our collection of palms is only exceeded in variety by 

 that of Colonel Robert H. Montgomery at Coconut Grove 

 in Florida, and our ornamental and useful hardwood trees 

 — teak and the like — are now big enough so that we can 

 supply seeds to anybody who needs them. Soledad Planta- 

 tion itself has flourishing forest plantings to provide future 

 railway ties grown from our seed. For this Garden is not 

 simply ornamental, but serves a useful purpose, introduc- 

 ing and testing economic plants from all over the tropical 

 world. 



One of the sure satisfactions of a life extraordinarily 

 blessed with satisfactory events has been the many, many 

 restful hours which I have spent alone watching the birds 

 in a setting of entrancing beauty, a setting which changes 

 every year. I thought the place was ruined when I saw it 

 after the great hurricane of 1934, but in 1941, when last I 

 was there, all signs of the hurricane were completely gone, 

 such is the rapidity of plant growth in the tropics. The 



