314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



the cooler forests of the cloud zone ; but the greater number of the 

 dicotyledonous trees, which almost everywhere predominate, have 

 leaves of practically one form— oval, ovoid, oblong, or elliptical, 

 with entire margins, but varying, of course, in size, venation, and 

 other details. I searched everywhere in vain for a leaf of tree, 

 shrub, or climber with serrated margins. No leaves at all like those 

 of our oaks (excepting those of the laurel-oak group), maples, 

 sycamore, sweet gum, or others of our northern woods with deeply 

 divided or lobed leaves were seen, the nearest approach being the 

 guarumo (a species of Cecropia), conspicuous for its large, palm- 

 ately-divided peltate leaves. There are a few trees with heart- 

 shaped leaves, like those of our redbucl and catalpas, and a con- 

 siderable number with pinnate leaves, especially of the sort with 

 small leaflets and fernlike foliage, like our locusts {Robinia and 

 Gleditsia), and, indeed, belonging to the same natural order of 

 plants. The latter are particularly numerous on the Pacific side, 

 while on the Atlantic slope, the so-called Spanish cedar, or cedro, 

 has more coarsely pinnate leaves, resembling those of the black 

 walnut or Ailanthus; in fact, the big cedros much resemble in 

 appearance (except for their enormous buttresses) gigantic black 

 walnuts. As before remarked, the prevailing oval, ovoid, oblong, 

 or elliptical leaves borne by the majority of the trees, vary greatly 

 in size and other details. Many trees on the Caribbean slope had 

 leaves more or less resembling those of our southern evergreen 

 Magnolia (M. grandiflora) ; and I remember one in particular (at 

 Guayabo) whose leaves were so hard and heavy that in falling (as 

 they did at intervals during our presence there in May) they made 

 a noise when they struck the ground like that of shingles dropped 

 from a housetop. 



Tree trunks with rough or deeply furrowed bark, like that of our 

 black oaks, are rare in tropical forests, and it is only occasionally that 

 one is seen with a roughish or moderately furrowed bark, like that 

 of our white oaks, tulip tree, sweet gum, etc. ; the prevailing style is 

 a smoothish gray one, more or less like that of the beech, though there 

 are many with smooth bark of some other color, as the hunt, with a 

 smooth pinkish buff stem (pi. 5, fig. 1), another, whose name I did 

 not learn, with bark of almost snowy whiteness, and one with bark 

 of trunk and branches a bright Venetian red. Others have cream- 

 colored, buff, or greenish smooth bark, while many are conspicuously 

 mottled. 



With all the endless variety and magnificence of detail within a 

 tropical forest, this is hidden from view except where inroads have 

 been made by the hand of man. There are no vistas such as often 

 occur in our northern woods, except where the solid mass of vegeta- 



