456 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



3. Notes upon Plants collected in the Department ofTzahal, Guatemala, 

 February to April, 1885, — I. RanunculacecB to Connaracece. 



From the 25th of February to the 20th of April, 1885, I was iu the 

 department of Yzabal in eastern Guatemala, and spent a considerable 

 portion of this time in collecting such plants as were found in flower 

 or fruit. So little is critically known respecting the flora of this region 

 that my collection of about five hundred species should be of somewhat 

 more than ordinary interest. The following account of so much of it 

 as I have yet had time to examine will show how for this expectation 

 is likely to be realized. The full set is to be found in the herbarium 

 of Harvard University ; few duplicates were made. 



The entrance to Guatemala from the east has always been by the 

 Rio Dulce, which breaks through the hills bordering the coast and 

 allows passage to light steamers and other craft to Lake Yzabal, and 

 thence up the Polichic River, a hundred miles into the interior. The 

 valley of the Rio Dulce is hemmed in closely on the south side by 

 the Sierra Mico, a low broken range separating it from the valley of 

 the Motagua, and terminating near the coast in the peak of San Gil, 

 about 3,700 feet in height. At the mouth of the river is the town of 

 Livingston, situated on a bluff overlooking the roadstead, with low 

 ground on each side along the sea and river. Beyond the tortuous, 

 picturesque, precipitously walled gorge by which the Dulce pierces the 

 hills it opens out into the Gulfetta, with a low densely wooded valley 

 on the northern side, through which flows the Chocou River, a short 

 deep stream heading in the hills beyond. Upon this river, about 

 thirty miles by boat from Livingston, is the plantation recently opened 

 by the Tropical Products Company of Boston, where, through the 

 courtesy of its President, W. T. Brigham, Esq., I spent most of the 

 month of March. 



Above the Gulfetta the river-banks again contract until the entrance 

 to Lake Yzabal is reached, where stands the dilapidated fort of San 

 Felipe, built by the Spaniards to protect the interior towns from the 

 depredations of the buccaneers. On the southern shore of the lake is 

 the town of Yzabal, very pleasantly situated on high ground, and the 

 eastern terminus of the Camino Real. This long-used highway, pass- 

 able, like all roads in Guatemala, only upon foot or on horseback, 

 crosses over the Sierra Mico into the Motagua valley by a pass of 

 about 1,500 feet altitude, and then turns westward toward the city of 

 Guatemala. At Yzabal, through the generous hospitality and kind 

 assistance of Thomas J. Potts, Esq., a fortnight was profitably passed 



