342 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



Columbus Island. It had been intended to leave a part of this ship- 

 ment in the Canal Zone, but a preliminary inspection indicated that 

 the safest method of handling these plants would be to first take them 

 all to the quarantine station at Flat Rock where they could be un- 

 packed and inspected. This was done and subsequently a portion 

 of the plants were brought back to the Plant Introduction Gardens 

 in the Canal Zone. 



In Cristobal the plants were transshipped to the S. S. Parismina, 

 which sailed the following day for Bocas del Toro. On the morning 

 of October 5, the shipment was unloaded into lighters at Bocas del 

 Toro, was transferred to the quarantine station at Flat Rock in the 

 afternoon, and was unloaded on the rocky beach during the late after- 

 noon and evening. In a rough sea that was encountered during the 

 short trip from Bocas del Toro to Columbus Island, one of the lighters 

 broke loose from the towing launch, and a large part of the shipment 

 was very nearly lost at this time. 



CONDITIONS AT FLAT ROCK 



The plant quarantine station is located in an isolated place on 

 Columbus Island, about 6 miles by sea from the small town of Bocas 

 del Toro. This station had been in operation only 3 months, and but 

 little work had been done other than the construction of a relatively 

 small plant cage. This cage furnished space for the planting of 

 less than 15 percent of this shipment of abaca plants. As no work 

 animals or implements other than spades were available, it was neces- 

 sary to clear and spade an area outside the cage of sufficient size for 

 planting about 800 plants. The conditions with respect to moisture 

 were very unfavorable, and as there were no facilities for watering the 

 plants, it was questionable how many of them might survive. 



With the 8 laborers that were available 3 days were required to move 

 the 279 heavy cases of plant material a distance of about 500 yards 

 over a very rough trail from the beach to the plant cage. While this 

 was being done, the work of clearing and spading the plot outside the 

 cage was started. All the large crates and boxes were unpacked and 

 the rhizomes were classified according to their condition as "good," 

 "doubtful," and "bad." Of the total shipment of 1,438 plants, more 

 than one-half appeared to be in good condition and about 73 percent 

 were alive. The planting work was finished 5 days after the plants 

 were landed on Columbus Island. It proved to be very fortunate 

 that a large number of growing plants were brought from the Philip- 

 pines to Panama, as many of the rhizomes that were alive when they 

 were unpacked at Flat Rock failed to grow. Three months after 

 this planting was made there were about 500 growing plants in the 



