TREE FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA——MAXON. 475 
like divisions with its tiny drop of moisture sparkling in the soft 
half light of the cool forest, and the unbroken silence of the forest 
itself create an impression not readily to be forgotten. 
In Hawaii and elsewhere aerial root masses are cut from the stem 
and fashioned into hanging baskets for the cultivation of ferns, 
orchids, and various epiphytes. They are admirably suited to this 
purpose, the interstices among the closely interwoven roots affording 
a ready outlet for excess water. 
TREE FERN TRUNKS AS TIMBER. 
The illustration shown in plate 4 is of a building at Sepacuité, 
Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, whose outer upright timbers are mostly 
tree fern trunks, roughly squared and set on end close together. 
The country immediately surrounding Sepacuité is for the most 
part heavily forested, except in the areas cleared for coffee planting, 
and since many species of tree ferns still abound, the use of their 
trunks in building is not remarkable. I am informed, however, by 
Mr. O. F. Cook, of the United States Department of Agriculture, who 
has traveled extensively in this region, that elsewhere, even under 
conditions of considerable difficulty, a similar use of these timbers is 
made, indicating the high value placed upon them. Mr. Cook 
writes as follows: 
Though Guatemala is naturally a country of heavy forests, wood for building pur- 
poses, or even for fuel, is a scarce and expensive article in most of the larger towns, 
all of the neighboring forests having been cut long since and burned to make room 
for cornfields. Everything in the way of wood has to be brought down from the 
mountains on the backs of men. 
During a visit to Coban, the capital of the Department of Alta Verapaz, in 1904, 
many Indians were seen carrying tree fern trunks through the streets. On inquiry 
it was learned that the fern logs command a higher price than any other kind of wood, 
and are looked upon as the best of building material. The special value of the fern 
wood lies in the fact that it withstands the attacks of the termites and does not decay. 
The termites, or so-called white ants, are wood-boring insects that are very destruc- 
tive to buildings in tropical countries. 
The fern trunks have a diameter of 6 or 7 inches. They are usually flattened on 
two sides or roughly squared and are set upright to support the framework of the 
native houses. The walls are filled with clay or loose rubble of clay and stones. 
The surface receives a coating of plaster in the interest of appearances and as a pro- 
tection against the weather. 
The fern timbers are entirely black in color, like wood charred in fire. The tex- 
ture appears rather loose and open, the outer layer being mainly a compact mass of 
small roots; but the elements have a glassy hardness that makes it easy to understand 
their resistance to all forms of decay or insect injury. When houses become dilapi- 
dated with age the fern trunks are taken out and used over again and are considered 
quite imperishable. 
Jenman mentions a somewhat similar use of the trunks of Cyathea 
arborea by the blacks in certain parts of Jamaica as posts for their 
houses, stating that no other species is there applied to this purpose. 
