273 Forestry Quarterly. 



In climbing one of the mountains in the upper Guama the 

 balanophoraceous parasite, Scyhalium jamaicense was frequently 

 found growing on the roots of Cassia emarginata. 



Our first real canyon was visited here and the great change 

 from the dry slopes to the moist gorge was very marked and most 

 interesting. Epiphytes of all kinds abound, chief among them be- 

 ing Tillandsia, Guzmania, Rhipsalis, together with numerous 

 Piperaceae, Orchidaceae and Araceae; and also many ferns, par- 

 ticularly of the genus Campyloneuron. Vines are festooned in the 

 trees, noteworthy among them species of Rajania, Prestonia and 

 Mucuna. These, with hundreds of others, make the views up these 

 gorges very beautiful. The suddenness of the change from the 

 dry slopes is a very pronounced example of the ecological relation 

 that all plants must bear to their soil-environment. The climatic 

 conditions are of course the same in both situations, but there is 

 water in the bottom of these canyons and it is to this edaphic factor 

 that we must look to account for the support of such a luxuriant 

 vegetation. 



On the mountains in this vicinity numerous colonies of Pinus 

 occidentalis were noted. This was originally described by Swartz 

 from the island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), and it is interest- 

 ing on account of the variation that it shows in the number of 

 needles. Haytian and Domingan specimens have usually four or 

 five leaves in a sheath, while the Cuban tree has mostly three. 



About the end of our stay in the lowland parts there was a 

 shower almost every day. These are not showers in our northern 

 sense, but terrific downpours, and, in consequence, throughout the 

 forest a large number of Bromeliads were dislodged from their 

 hosts and strewn over the ground. In the case of Tillandsia fasci- 

 culata particularly the cup at the base of the rosette of leaves be- 

 comes filled with water in a few moments and the epiphyte is torn 

 from its support by its own weight. Thousands were found in this 

 condition after a week of such showers. 



After leaving the lowland for the Maestra the change in the 

 flora is not very marked until one comes up to the top. Very few 

 of the species found at lower levels are lost and still fewer new 

 ones are found, so that the character of the vegetation is very like 

 that of the lower altitudes. One or two terrestrial orchids and a 

 few ferns are exceptions to this statement, but the really marked 

 change does not occur until the top ridge is reached and for the first 



