View from Rural Guard Quarters, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The dominant tree is the royal palm 



palm. Pines and palmettos were not 

 seen in sufficient abundance to give us 

 much hope of a close comparison with 

 Florida, although the parklike aspect 

 of the country, the grassland with 

 scattered trees, was similar to what we 

 wanted. 



One of the pleasures of traveling on a 

 scientific errand consists in finding so 

 many friends of the work. x\mong 

 such at Pinar was Dr. Gonzalez Valez, 

 who put his time entirely at our disposal 

 and accompanying us on most of our 

 trips acted as interpreter when our 



"^ir- 





.*■ 



There is an automobile stage running from Pinar across the moun 

 tains to the north coast 



Spanish failed. We profited by sugges- 

 tions from Dr. Cuesta and by specimens 

 from his collection, and Commandante 

 Cepeda of the Rural Guards offered to 

 do anything in his power — which was a 

 great deal. Preliminary scoutings in 

 the vicinity of the town confirmed the 

 misgivings we had from views out of the 

 car window. Collecting was poor and 

 not Floridian. We therefore accepted 

 the Commandante's offer of an army 

 wagon to take us to Cerro Cabras or 

 Goat Hill. An obliging soldier went 

 with us and a negro muleteer whose 

 skill in handling his 

 charges was exceeded 

 only by the risks he 

 took after we left the 

 carretera or good road, 

 for the camino real or 

 "kings highway." At 

 Cerro Cabras we found 

 some pines and "live 

 oaks" but not a Flori- 

 dian topography. Com- 

 pare this with what we 

 found the next day — 

 Floridian pines, palmet- 

 tos and grasses on a 



'^. 



