NO. 10 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I923 5 1 



recently set aside as a wild reserve upon representation t)f the Insti- 

 tute for Research in Tropical America ; the virgin forest region at the 

 headwaters of the Rio Chinilla. ahove ]\Ionte Lirio ; and the Fort 

 Sherman ]\Iilitarv Reservation, which includes the famous old Spanish 

 stronghold. Fort San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the Chagres. All these 

 localities are forested and are rich in palms, and special attention 

 was directed to obtaining material in this difficult group. With the 

 steady clearing of leased land for planting bananas the original forest 

 in the Canal Zone is rapidly disappearing, and with it its characteristic 

 palm associations. These can hardly appear in abandoned cut-over 

 areas for a long time to come, and will therefore have to be sought 

 shortly in imexplored territory adjacent to the Zone. Owing to the 

 killing of thousands of huge trees by flooding in forming Gatun Lake 

 the natural habitat of many rare and peculiar orchids has been de- 

 stroyed also, and it may be doubted if some of these species will ever 

 be found elsewhere in the region. Fortunately they are largely repre- 

 sented in the truly remarkable collection of living orchids amassed 

 by Mr. C. W. Powell at his home in Balboa as the result of many 

 years of painstaking search in the Canal Zone region and western 

 Panama. 



About three weeks was spent in Nicaragua, wholly in the region 

 west of Lake Nicaragua and mainly working from Managua, the 

 capital, which lies picturesquely at a low elevation 90 miles inland from 

 the Pacific coast, flanked by numerous volcanoes. Except for the 

 volcanoes and the low range called the Sierra, given over to cofifee 

 production, western Nicaragua is low and almost entirely cleared of 

 forest. Cane and grazing are the main industries. The soil is largely 

 a rich black loam of volcanic origin, and supports a luxuriant growth 

 of tall grasses, the arborescent vegetation being mainly confined to 

 roadsides and abandoned " ])otrero.'" The most interesting trips were 

 to the region of Casa Colorada in the Sierra, and to Momliacho and 

 Santiago volcanoes. The material collected indicates a rich flora for 

 the higher mountain slopes, one that would amply repay extended 

 exploration. Returning to Corinto. a day was given to collecting 

 avocados at Chinandega, a locality famous for this fruit throughout 

 the Repulilic. Notwithstanding the remarkable diversity and excel- 

 lence of the varieties that are here locally abundant, these seem to have 

 attracted no attention on the part of growers in other countries. 



From Corinto Dr. Maxon proceeded by steamer to Puntarenas, the 

 Pacific port of Costa Rica, a little town chiefly notable for its heat, 

 cleanness, and manufacture of tortoise-shell articles. The ascent l)y 



