Hcllprin.] 



138 



as is Yucatan, I venture to submit a few general observations which were 

 hastily picked up during a field reconnaissance made in the early part of 

 1890 (late February and March), principally in the interests of geological 

 and zoological research. The collection of plants, which serves as a basis 

 for some of the determinations referred to in this paper, was made by Mr. 

 Winner Stone, one of my associates in exploration, to whom I am indebted 

 for notes and remarks on distribution, etc. I desire in this place also to 

 acknowledge my indebtedness for various favors to D. Emilio MacKin- 

 ney, of IVferida, Yucatan, the author of the now progressing Nuevo 

 Judio,* who has kindly assisted me in the determination of species not 

 in flower, and of which specimens could not readily be obtained for our 

 collections, and also furnished the local or Maya names. 



Perhaps the traveler's first surprise on landing in Yucatan is that his 

 eyes do not immediately fall upon a line of lofty primeval forest ; secondly, 

 he may be distressed by the utter barrenness which at times distinguishes 

 much of the region that is covered by the bush or "jungle." This is the 

 condition throughout much of the dry season when the trees and bushes, 

 instead of being buried in dense and brilliant verdure, are as bare as 

 though they had just passed through the tail end of one of our northern 

 winters. The more striking does this condition appear when it is recollec- 

 ted that the region under consideration is well within the tropics, but little 

 elevated above the level of the sea, and seemingly well fitted for the devel- 

 opment of a rich and luxuriant flora. In the region first visited by us the 

 flat limestone tract included between the seaboard and the capital city 

 the vegetation is monotonous to a high degree. There is little of that 

 variety of form which we are accustomed to associate with the vegetation 

 of the south little or nothing of the life .which astonishes by its exuber- 

 ance. By far the greater number of the arboreal elements of the scrub 

 for it is more nearly scrub than either jungle or forest belong to the 

 group of the Leguminosse, among which the yaxJialin] (a species of 

 Cassia) and the dog-acacia or subinche (Acacia cornigera), with their abatis 

 of thorns, stand out as prominent members. Beyond the presence here 

 and there of one or more spjcics of cactus (Oereus Ptrttoianus, C.flagelli- 

 formis, Cactus opunfia) and the vision of distant cocoa-palms and oranges, 

 there is little to remind the stranger from the north that he is not traveling 

 in his own country. There are no large foresters swinging garlands of 

 evergreens to the breeze, no canopy of flowers to waft perfume to the air. 

 All about are tree-like bushes, fifteen to twenty-five feet in height, thin and 

 so spare in their foliage as to permit of but indifferent shade, and most of 

 them stocked with a wonderful armor of hooks and thorns. There are few 

 flowers on the interground, and what appear on the branches above are 

 almost wholly of a yellow color the flowers of the Cassia and of the numer- 



* El Naevo Jadio : Apuntes que serviran para la formation de La Flora Yucateca. Merida, 

 1889. 



t Pronounced with the German pronunciation of the vowels, yashabin. The x which 

 appears in many of the Maya or Yucatecau words, as iu Uxmal, has the sound of sfi. 



