﻿NO. 



SMITHSONTAX EXPLORATIONS, I922 



67 



contained in them, besides many that are rare and httle known. The 

 flora of Salvador is essentially like that of the Pacific slope of Guate- 

 mala (which likewise has been but imperfectly investigated), but it 

 is of great interest to find here many species that heretofore have not 

 been known to extend north of Costa Rica and Panama. 



Particular attention was devoted to securing the vernacular names 

 emploved in Salvador, and many hundreds were obtained. A part 



Fig. 66. — Gathering Salvadorean balsam in for- 

 ests of the Balsam Coast. (Photograph by Dr. 

 V. H. Hnezo.) 



of the country was occupied before the Spanish conquest by people 

 who spoke a dialect of the Nahuatl language, the idiom spoken also 

 by the inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico, although not or scarcely 

 known in the intervening territory of Guatemala. A large part of 

 the names now used here for plants are of Nahuatl origin, some of 

 them being the same as those employed in Mexico, while others are 

 quite difi^erent. Besides these philological notes, much information 



