^8 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



With regard to their specific composition, these forests are exceed- 

 ingly varied and belong with very few exceptions to the type of mixed 

 dicotyledonous forests. Up to the present we have listed about 900 spe- 

 cies of trees, belonging to 330 genera and 90 families. This computa- 

 tion does not include shrubs and woody vines, which would materially 

 increase the number of species and genera, if not that of families. 



The order Leguminosae is the dominating group, with 50 genera 

 (Papilionatse, 20; Caesalpiniacese, 19; and Mimosaceas, 11). Then fol- 

 low the Rubiacese with 34, the Palms with about 24, Euphorbiaceae with 

 17, Moracese with 14, and Myrtacese with 11 genera. Of the Rubiaceae, 

 it should be observed that only about 14 genera have the real tree-habit, 

 and the larger number consists of ligneous shrubs with wide representa- 

 tion in the underbrush of all forests. The family is really the dominat- 

 ing one among the woody plants, with the exception perhaps of the 

 genus Piper, which shows a considerable number of well defined but 

 very much localized forms. Tree-ferns and bamboos do not form, as a 

 rule, a conspicuous element of the Panaman forest. 



Among the families with from 5 to 10 genera, the Lauraceae (7) and 

 Bignoniaceas (9), are economically the most important, but others like 

 Sapotaceffi (6), Guttiferae (9), Bombacaceae (10), Sapindaceae (8), 

 Combretaceae (5), Anacardiaceae (7), Anonaceae (7), and Lecythida- 

 ceae (6), also contribute in an effective way to the characterization of 

 our forests. Numerous in genera and species, but mostly shrubs, are 

 the Melastomataceae, Myrsinaceae, and Apocynacese, which play an im- 

 portant ecological role. Of the remaining families, 33 are represented 

 by I genus only, and a few others by 2, 3, or 4 genera, mostly with few 

 species each. 



The Panaman forests belong almost entirely to primary formations, 

 in which the primeval type is seen in all its glory. Secondary growth 

 appears only in the neighborhood of human settlements and along the 

 main trade routes. Though we are often offered descriptions of virgin 

 wilderness by travelers who have ridden or tramped along the rail- 

 road from Colon to Panama, few if any of these writers have known 

 what they were writing about. Virgin forest exists in close proximity 

 of the Canal and Panama Railroad, only at a few places unfit for culti- 

 vation on account either of their being too swampy or too hilly, and 

 they present there their most stunted type. The only exception, to my 

 knowledge, was on a short stretch of the old railroad, between the 

 Black Swamp and Gatun, where lies Lion Hill, the favorite hunting 

 ground of many collectors. There, small patches of full-fledged pri- 

 meval forests could still be seen a few years ago, but, with the exception 



