Cuba 91 



out rolling stones, and within an hour had turned up a tiny, 

 slender lizard with a coral-red tail, which was very obvi- 

 ously our long unknown friend Cricosaura. I saw several 

 others, but they were fast Httle devils and I got only the 

 one. However, this one was as good as a thousand in es- 

 tablishing the fact that Gundlach was right. This creature 

 has one of the most restricted ranges of any reptile in the 

 world, being confined to an area in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of Cabo Cruz, not much bigger than Beacon 

 Hill in Boston. 



To me there is something particularly appealing about 

 the scenery of the Cuban countryside. To be sure, the 

 tropical vegetation is not breath-takingly inspiring, as is, 

 for instance, that tropical forest which you meet between 

 Puerto Armuelles in western Panama and the Costa Rican 

 line. The wide sweeping cane fields, their dainty tassels 

 blowing in the breeze, and the giant Ceiba trees, which 

 are so often to be seen, since it is a custom never to cut 

 them down, are a joy to the eye. These great umbrellas, 

 their horizontal limbs each a garden of epiphytic curujeyes 

 (plants growing on other plants), as the bromeliads are 

 called in Cuba, are singularly pleasing, especially when the 

 soft green foliage comes out with the first spring rains. 

 Then there are the wide groves of stately royal palms, 

 their pale gray stalks like stone columns surmounted by a 

 section of polished green from which the long, graceful 

 fronds sprout forth. These are used for thatching and the 

 berries are gathered for pigs. There is a law against cut- 

 ting them down, since the royal palm is the official emblem 

 of the Republic. 



