12 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Chiriqui, in western Panama, where a reduced endemic element 

 mingles with representatives of the flora of northern countries and 

 of the South American Andes. 



The great variety in plant life is evidenced by the large number 

 of flowering trees such as royal poinciana 3 (Delonix regia), which 

 is covered in June with brilliant red flower clusters. The lignum- 

 vitae 4 {Guaicum sanctum) is a tree with spreading branches and 

 wistaria-colored blossoms ; its wood is very hard. Among herbaceous 

 plants found in the mountainous interior are numerous species of 

 vines and epiphytic orchids. The iron withe, bejuco hierro, is 

 much employed for tying the poles and wattling of native houses 

 and in basketry. 



Plants employed by native tribes in arts and those that are valuable 

 for food, also those used in the practice of primitive medicine, will be 

 referred to in subsequent sections. 



POPULATION: THE SPANISH, NEGROES, AND ASIATICS 



The size, location, and configuration of the Isthmus of Panama 

 have made possible its utilization as a natural highway joining 

 continent with continent and ocean with ocean. Other geographical 

 factors, such as a humid tropical climate, combined with a jungle 

 vegetation, have retarded settlement and the building up of a dense 

 population along this natural highway. Were it not for such factors 

 one might expect to find here at the crossroads of the New World 

 the high culture that sprang up instead far to the south in Peru 

 and to the north in Mexico. In pre-Columbian times many tribal 

 migrations across the Isthmus must have taken place, for the variety 

 of physical and cultural types in aboriginal South America is 

 great and the presence of the Indian in that continent is too recent 

 to account for such dissimilarity. But few traces of early migra- 

 tions are known to exist in southeastern Panama. No ancient stone- 

 work has been uncovered ; no ancient burial places offering a wealth 

 of archaeological data have been found such as have been discovered 

 and studied in the urn burials " huaca " and the pottery offerings 

 in the Province of Chiriqui in western Panama. Similarities and 

 dissimilarities in speech, cultural traits, and physical types that 

 exist in the living native tribes of southeastern Panama, both one to 

 another, and to the great aboriginal cultural centers to the north 

 and to the south, and to which they are marginal, constitute the 

 only reliable guide to the unfolding of their past. 



With the coming of Columbus and the historical period it becomes 

 possible to trace the ethnic elements entering Darien more satisfac- 

 torily. Each group of invaders left not only cultural traces, but a 



3 This tree was introduced from Madagascar. 4 This comes from the West Indies. 



