928 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



Fig. 38. Lower slopes of Cordon del Barril, Masafuera. A7jtJwxnnlhuvi, Lophoso7-ia etc.; louest 

 altitude for Myrceugenia Schuhci. — Photo K. Backstrom, Feb. 191 7. 



few hundred m from the sea in an altitude of less than i 50 m above sea-level, but on 

 the almost perpendicular walls there is no room for a forest. On the slopes of the 

 upper, V-shaped parts of the valleys are groves of luma. On the gently sloping 

 table-land between the Casas and \'acas valleys are three small gullies not 

 eroded down to the shore, each with a patch of forest, and on the plain be- 

 tween the Cabreros and Blindado gullies called El Papal lumas are scattered 

 in the grass-land at 300 m (Fig. 38). In Blindado the first trees were found at 

 about 330 m, 50 m higher up were small patches of forest, and above 425 m a 

 narrow fringe of good forest follows the stream to 700 m, where it breaks up 

 into smaller groves, the last observed in 825 m. In all the valleys north of Casas 

 conditions are about the same. In the Mono and Chozas valleys the first lumas 

 appear at 200 m, groves of some extension at 350 and good forest of luma and 

 naranjillo [Fagara externa) at 450 m (Pis. 106:1, 107), extending to 715-740 m 

 (Fig- 39)- From c. 550 m canelos [Drimys] appear. The largest forest still in- 

 tact covers the ridge between Quebrada Sanchez and O. Larga and the north 

 slope of this valley almost to the top of the barranca back of Token bay (PI. 

 108:1). Turning to the west side of the island, strips of forest are seen in the 

 hanging gulches, all apparently inaccessible without special precautions and ar- 

 rangements, with exception of a gorge at the north end of Playa Larga, where 

 the forest descends to about 250 m and solitary trees 50 m lower down (St. 57). 

 On the steep south slope of the island, where the ridges radiating from Los 

 Inocentes come down, patches of forest are seen in the gullies above Vicente 

 Porras and Rodado del Sandalo. 



The position of the timber-line varies, but as a rule the last forest patches 

 are met with between 700 and 750 m, even if scattered groups of lumas and 



