20 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



found in large numbers a tall, slender, beautiful palm, known locally as 

 the wax-palm, very similar, if not identical with the palm found so 

 abundantly in the Central Andes in the vicinity of the Quindio Pass. 

 The writer has no note or recollection of the presence of this par- 

 ticular palm in the Sierra Nevada proper. 



The arboreal species composing the forests of the Sierra Nevada 

 de Santa Marta are to a great extent different from those found in 

 the Andes of Colombia, although there are species common to both, 

 especially in the Eastern Andes. However, the species of oak so 

 abundant in Santander and Boyaca, as well as the nogal and other 

 characteristic Andean forms, are entirely wanting in the region under 

 consideration. As far as the junior author has been able to judge, 

 while having little technical knowledge of the flora, the higher the alti- 

 tude, the greater the resemblance between the arboreal flora of the 

 Eastern Andes on the one hand and that of the Sierra Nevada de 

 Santa Marta on the other. 



Paramos. — Timber-line in the Sierra Nevada is at about 10,000 feet 

 in most places, and is abrupt and well marked, changing rapidly in an 

 ascent of not more than five hundred feet from heavy woodland to 

 scattered shrubs and stunted, wind-twisted trees. Above timber-line we 

 have paramo conditions, where the vegetation is very characteristic, 

 with little or no resemblance to the tropical flora of the lowlands. 

 Gnarled and stunted trees in the sheltered valleys and ravines are the 

 only arboreal representatives. Stiff, harsh shrubbery, with short 

 branches and small, closely set leaves is the dominant type, while 

 several kinds of coarse, hardy grasses are everywhere abundant, cov- 

 ering the wind-swept ridges and steeper slopes. The shrubbery is 

 largely confined to the more level areas and the valleys, where there is 

 more moisture, and it is less exposed to the bitter tempests of these 

 regions. Practically all the shrubs bear large and brightly colored 

 flowers, while small flowering annuals with blossoms of brilliant hues 

 are very abundant. From 10,000 or 11,000 feet up to snow-line is 

 found in varying abundance the peculiar mullein-like plant known as 

 " frailejon," the flowers of which afford a large portion of the food for 

 the hummingbirds of the paramo, especially the beautiful Oxypogon 

 cyanolccmns. There seems to be but one species of " frailejon" pres- 

 ent in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the tawny yellow variety, 

 with golden yellow flowers, which here attains but a fraction of the 



