﻿NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I922 yj 



covered with mosses, hepaticae, and ferns. In this zone occasionally 

 occur oak forests, recalling vividly our northern woods, and black- 

 berries are to be found. The Temperate Zone is a region of small- 

 leaved, usually dwarfed trees, of blueberries and other ericaceous 

 shrubs, and of open hillsides, where geraniums and Andean genera 

 of the rose family are numerous. The Paramo is the bleak open 

 country between timberline and the snows. Here flourish densely 

 woolly espeletias, bizarre senecios, and many other brilliantly flowered 

 herbaceous plants. , 



Travel in Colombia is by railroad, by boat, and by horse or mule. 

 Railroad construction has necessarily been slow, no road having yet 

 been built over the Central Cordillera, while only a single line crosses 

 the Western Range. In the Cauca Valley construction is being 

 pushed, though only a small portion of the line has been completed. 

 Boat travel is fairly satisfactory, and the scenery along many of the 

 streams is very picturesque. The Cauca, navigable for good-sized 

 steamers between Cali and Puerto Caldas, winds its way down a broad 

 valley, in the main keeping to the western side, the banks lined with 

 palms and bamboos. On one hand are the hills of the Western 

 Cordillera; on the other, the higher mountains of the Central range. 

 But to the botanist travel by horse or mule, though slower, is far 

 preferable, since it aftords opportunity to collect thoroughly in speci- 

 ally favorable places. So inadequately known is the flora of Colombia 

 that even along the regular routes of travel many species are found 

 that are either new, unrepresented in American herbaria, or known 

 only from specimens preserved in European collections. 



The Colombians are of Spanish descent and are mostly well edu- 

 cated, many of them having studied in American and European 

 universities. Even among the lower classes illiteracy was rarely met 

 with. The Indians, foimd chiefly in the mountainous regions of the 

 interior, seem to be peaceful and industrious. No " wild savages " 

 were seen, although members of the expedition reached remote cor- 

 ners of the country. Indian women delight in gay colors, a blue waist 

 and a scarlet dress being a particularly favorite combination ; the 

 men dress more somberly and more scantily, often wearing merely a 

 black smock reaching barely to their knees. The negroes are confined 

 mainly to the coastal strips and to the warmer parts of the main 

 valleys. 



Perhaps the most lasting impression one brings back from Colombia 

 is that of the unaft'ected friendliness of the people. Everyone, from 



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