250 Forestry Quarterly. 



A number of palms appear in single specimens and groups all 

 through the woods from the seashore to the very tops of the moun- 

 tains, but have none or little commercial value, being too few in 

 number. 



A delightful surprise are the wild lemon trees, with excellent fruit, 

 which are found everywhere in cool situations. Coffee trees also 

 have run wild occasionally from the various cafetieras established 

 in the woods by the insurgents of 1868. 



The two small trees, most common and numerous of all, which 

 have an established commercial value for canes, posts, poles and 

 railroad ties are the Mui, one of the several species of Calypthran- 

 thes (Myrtaceae), and Yagua, the well-known Lancewood, Oxandra 

 virgata, A. Rich., which sometimes reaches 2 feet diameters and over 

 50 feet in height. These two trees, almost to the exclusion of any- 

 thing else, form the undergrowth throughout the woods, up to 2500 

 feet elevation at least. Indeed, one may almost say that the forest 

 is composed of these two low species in all stages of development,, 

 with sporadic intermixture of the larger species. 



Forest Conditions. 

 Aside from the difference in composition, the outer aspect of 

 the tropical mountain forest, at least here, is not so very different 

 from the more northern deciduous forest, and at a distance, if it 

 were not for the palms which stick out here and there, especially 

 near shore, we would not recognize any characteristic difference. 

 Only on coming closer when we scan the forms of crowns and fol- 

 iage, a somewhat different physiognomy may become apparent, due 

 to the large number of species with pinnatifid leaves, and again with 

 such of leathery texture. On entering we find further differences,, 

 not so great, however, as our fancy may have made us expect. 



We are accustomed to take our conception of a tropical forest 

 from the descriptions of low land forests, with a dense gloomy veg- 

 etation, almost impossible to penetrate, of mighty giants, dense un- 

 derbrush and a jungle of vines, lianas, etc. But there are as varied 

 conditions in the tropics, mainly due to variation in moisture condi- 

 tions, as are experienced in our northern forests, and on this range 

 neither on the shore nor in the narrow river valleys is any truly low- 

 land forest to be found, excepting the mangrove swamps. 



The first and most striking difference which will attract a forest- 

 er's attention is the character of the forest floor, namely an almost 



