704 



NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



up of both woody and herbaceous plants. 

 Many species of cacti, varying from the 

 creeping and low or ground forms to the 

 true tree cactus, abound and add greatly 

 to the discomforts and difficulty of 

 travel. The occurrence of the large 

 lizard, Cyclura stejnegeri, and of a West 

 Indian boa, Epicrates monensis, in con- 

 siderable numbers is notable. The 

 Cyclura is extinct in Porto Rico, the 

 boa nearly so. 



35 mi. slightly southwest of the city of 

 Mayaguez. Reached by the motor 

 boat or sail boat of the Light House 

 Service which maintains a more or less 

 regular service between Mayaguez and 

 the Light House situated on Mona 

 Island. There are usually about two 

 sailings per week. Small parties can 

 find accommodations at the light house, 

 though food and army cots should be 

 carried. From 6 to 24 hours are re- 

 quired for the trip either way between 

 Mayaguez and the lighthouse. G. N. W. 

 E. M. B. t and K. P. Schmidt. 



*Insular Mangrove Forests 



These consist of numerous parcels of 

 tidal swamp lands supporting mangrove 

 forests with an aggregate area of about 

 15,000 acres. They occur on the north, 

 east, south and west coasts and in no 

 less than 20 different localities. In 

 addition to the true mangrove, Rhizo- 

 phora mangle, three other species and 

 sometimes four are found. All five 

 species are locally called mangrove 

 (mangle in Spanish) E. M. Bruner. 



*Porto Rico's Small Islands 



Desecheo in the Mona Passage, is 

 already a bird preserve; it is xerophytic, 

 its rocks cretaceous, and it exhibits 

 highly interesting elevated beaches 

 similar to those at points on the coast 

 of Porto Rico. Cayo Muertos is also 

 limestone, with natural scrub vegetation 

 of great density. Vieques is a long 

 narrow island, largely occupied by 

 sugar-cane fields but with some unmod- 

 ified areas, partly underlain by creta- 



ceous rock partly by Tertiary lime- 

 stones. Icacos consists of a pure white 

 soft limestone, with highly interesting 

 natural low vegetation. Culebra and 

 Culebrita are xerophytic and but little 

 modified, their rocks cretaceous. N. 

 L. B. 



Luquillo National Forest (Porto Rico) 



Area 12,443 acres. Is typical tropical 

 rain-forest comprising large variety of 

 hardwood species, some of which in the 

 more favored locations attain great 

 size. On the headwaters of the Ma- 

 meyes River trees of Dacryodes excelsa, 

 locally called tabonuco, reach heights 

 of approximately 100 ft. and diameters 

 up to 60 in., and occur in fair sized 

 stands. On the higher mountain tops, 

 and particularly on the crest of El 

 Yunque Mountain forests occur as 

 extremely dense stands of dwarfed 

 trees from 6 to 10 ft. in height and 2 to 4 

 in. in diameter, and made up for the 

 most part of the same species which 

 attain fair sizes at lower altitudes and 

 on more favorable locations. These 

 dwarf forests are characterized by the 

 presence of mosses almost completely 

 enveloping the trunks and branches of 

 the trees and hanging from the crowns 

 in short thick bunches. Because of the 

 high humidity and excessive rainfall 

 these mosses are at all times throughout 

 the year completely saturated with 

 moisture and dripping water. The 

 Luquillo is essentially a protective 

 forest because of its excessive rainfall 

 which averages about 140 in. per year, 

 the exceedingly rugged topography of 

 the Luquillo Range, and on account of 

 the necessity of stream-flow protection 

 for the benefit of the surrounding rich 

 agricultural lands. A complete forest 

 cover will be preserved and over most 

 of the area this will be kept in its original 

 condition. El Yunque, the highest peak, 

 is 3483 ft. Other high and well known 

 peaks are El Cacique, El Duque and 

 El Toro. 



Of particular interest are the series 

 of falls and cascades of the four main 



