Porto Rico 45 
Fadyenia prolifera, the fronds a which take root at their 
tips like our own walking fern. 
But the crowning glory of the Pteridophytes are the 
tree ferns. Nothing more graceful can be imagined than 
Cyathea arborea, with its slender trunk, its young fronds 
uncurling at the tips like bishops’ crooks, and its lacelike 
pinnae silhouetted against the sky. The accompanying 
illustration (PLATE 2, frontispiece), reproduced from a 
photograph in Dr. John C. Gifford’s report on the Lu- 
quillo Forest Reserve, will serve to show its beauty better 
than any possible description. Other tree ferns of these 
mountains are Cyathea portoricensis, the prickly ;-stemmed — 
Hemitelia horrida, and at least two species of Alsophila. 
I have neglected to mention the caves which occur in _ 
_ various localities on the island. Some of them furnish a 
supply of bat = which has been found to be highly _ 
beneficial in fertilizing worn-out sugar fields and other 
areas exhausted by centuries of cultivation. — In these 
‘eaves various articles of archeological interest have been 
found. But there is not space here to speak of the ves- 
tiges of the aboriginal inhabitants of Porto Rico, some of of 
which, especially objects of stone in the shape of | or 
collars and peculiar three-pointed stones, are ‘to be classed 
_ among the enigmas of archeology.t . 
As I think of the beautiful island with its tree 
: hills, its picturesque | valleys, and smiling fields 
cane, I rejoice that it is ours. It is to be he 
—- seabed will realize the pape es have 
