Heilprin ] J.**- [Xov. 6, 



lected also a number of Oncidia, etc. The epiphytes were mainly Tilland- 

 sias or Bromelias, which in places literally covered some of the large for- 

 esters, especially the pick (Inga xilocarpa). Among other components of 

 the vegetation are the Spanish bayonet (Yucca.) and Fourcroya, rising 

 thirty to forty feet, and several species of cactus (Cereus grandiflora, C. 

 fligelliformis, Melocactus). The firstof these, the fav-famed night-blooming 

 Cereus, occurs in great sprawling musses, dependent from the lower 

 branches of the bush. Here and there it is closely associated with the 

 organ or giant cactus (Cereus Peruviana) and with other species to form 

 dense and impenetrable thickets. Many of the plants were in flower at 

 the time of our visit. 



Three large cenotes, or, more properly, aguadas, those of Shkashek and 

 Balantun, open up within a short distance of one another on this road, 

 and their deep basins are largely encircled by a luxuriant growth of forest. 

 Over the surface of two of these, great lily pads had encroached upon the 

 water, recalling a picture from our own far north. In a second well a 

 brake or cane, together with the pith (Pandanus utills), had largely 

 usurped the place of the lily. I observed here also a number of calabash 

 bushes or trees (Crescenlia cujete). 



On the northern coast of the peninsula, adjoining the luxuriant supo- 

 tales of the Serrito, is a vast mangrove maze. Unlike the mangroves of 

 the Southern United States, such as I had observed in profuse develop- 

 ment on the western coast of Florida, or of Bermuda, the Yucatan man- 

 grove is a noble forester, rising a hundred feet or more in height. The 

 great air-shoots or roots descend from an elevation of fifty to seventy-five 

 feet, and in their massiveness recall the giant Gables of some of the Ficacece. 

 In its general aspect the mangrove forest is most impressive — a wilder- 

 ness of roots, stems and foliage, into which but little sunlight penetrates. 



Attention has already been directed to the scanty character of the Yuca- 

 tan sylva ; this is, indeed, the nature of the "jungle," which is referred 

 to by nearly all travelers since the clays of Stephens and which encom- 

 passes the sites of many of the larger ruins of the interior. The true 

 forest jungle, such as is to be met with in the State of Tabasco or in the 

 low Mexican region west of the Gulf, is wanting over the greater part of 

 the extensive limestone plain of the north, nor does it show itself in the 

 mountain tracts either. This condition has led botanists to assume that 

 the northern half of the peninsula was climatically and physically uu- 

 suited to the development of the profuse and healthy vegetation which 

 elsewhere distinguishes tropical Spanish America. Indeed, Grisebach 

 goes so far as to assume that the deficiency of forms is mainly due to an 

 absence of rainfall, which is, however, as well marked in Yucatan as it is 

 in most non-mountainous tropical countries. The fallacy of this view has 

 already been pointed out by Woeikof.* The scraps of luxuriant growth 

 that appear here and there, taken in conjunction with the giant dimen- 

 sions of some of the scattered foresters, seem to me to point rather to 



* Reise durch Yukatan und die siidostlichen Provinzen von Mexilo, 1871. Petermaim's 

 Miltheilungeri, 1879, p. 202. 



