CLEVELAND: FERNS OF ISTHMUS OF PANAMA =_-:1113 
deposits of a heavy red soil, due largely to the rapid decay 
of the dense tropical vegetation. 
The climatic conditions—due largely to the compara- 
tively low and narrow strip of land separating the Atlantic 
from the Pacific, allowing a meeting of air currents from 
eats oceans, combined with a comparatively high tem- 
perature—produce a tremendous evaporation and pre- 
pont The temperature is very constant; it seldom 
if ever goes below 72° Fahrenheit or above 95°. These 
conditions produce a vegetation which is dense and 
luxuriant, eo for some curious reason which I have | 
. le to discover, it is rather lacking i in variety, 
; and seis 3 is a noticeable scarcity of flowers. Ferns are 
in abundance, growing everywhere and in all kinds of 
situations, apparently without regard as to whether it 
is rock, soil, or tree trunk. I have found plants of a spe- 
cies of Polypodium growing on rocks on the seashore 
which during. heavy winds would be covered by breaking 
surf, and the same species growing on trunks of trees on 
the summits of the highest hills, seemingly equally at 
home in either situation. 
Although they grow in such profusion, I have ore 
astonished and disappointed in the few species I have 
been able to diseover, probably not over e thinty in all. 
