170 PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.59. 



At the present time the Caribbean coast is a region of swamps 

 and coastal lagoons, with a heavy rainfall and dense forest cover. 

 At Port Limon rain falls 265 days each year, and the annual rainfall 

 amounts to about 170 inches. The existing flora is essentially 

 the same as that of Panama, with a few Ant illean and many South 

 American elements. The virgin forests of the valleys, with their 

 tall trees, many lianas, and epiphytes, have been called by Polakowsky 

 the Hylaea association. It has much in common with Brazil, the 

 Guianas, Venezuela, and Colombia and little with that of Ecuador 

 and the Andean uplands or with that of Mexico and Guatemala. 

 Above 8,000 feet the flora consists of a mixture of peculiar species 

 and those common to the Central American uplands to the north. 



The fossil florule — it is not extensive enough to merit the term 

 flora — consists of 12 recognizable species. These comprise a Heli- 

 conia, two species of pepper (Piperites), a fig, an Anona, an Inga, 

 a Hieronymia, a Bilttneria, and three Lauraceae. The collection 

 contains no palms, nor ferns, nor distinctively coastal types. While 

 these peculiarities are believed to be due entirely to accidents of 

 preservation and discovery, the assemblage does not indicate a strand 

 flora but a noncoastal valley flora. It is perhaps needless to remark 

 that it is a typically tropical assemblage, essentially South American 

 in its facies. In addition to the named forms, which represent ten 

 genera, nine families, and nine orders, the collection contains linear 

 parallel-veined monocotyledonous leaves, fragments of undeter- 

 minable dicotyledonous genera, and a leafspot fungus. The scarcity 

 of Leguminosae is remarkable, this alliance being represented by a 

 single species of Inga — a genus still abundant in the region. The 

 relative abundance of Lauraceae is also worthy of notice. 



Class M0N0C0TYLED0NAE. 



Order PIPERALES. 



Family MUSACEAE. 



Genus HELICONIA Linnaeus. 



HEMCONIA, species. 



The collection contains small fragments of a large leaf, which 

 undoubtedly represents a Costa Rican Tertiary species of Hcliconia. 

 The venation is characteristic, but the material is unfortunately 

 inadequate for specific description. 



The genus Heliconia is exclusively American in the present-day 

 flora, with between 30 and 40 species widely distributed in the 

 American Tropics from the Antilles to Brazil. It is exceedingly 

 common in Central America and the lower Montana region of Peru 



