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“palma de sierra” (Gaussia princeps) short and thick-stalked in 
its early stages but very slender in its tall, old and more promi- 
nent specimens, and ‘‘drago”’ (Bombax emarginatum) with 
smooth, green or yellowish-barked, much swollen trunk and 
sparse irregular branches; the inner bark of this tree is of con- 
siderable economic importance locally as a material for tying 
tobacco into bundles. It is called “majagua,”’ but is not to be 
confused with the bark of Paritium elatum, which is known here 
as ‘‘majagua real” and is also used in tying the bales of tobacco, 
which are entirely enclosed in ‘‘yagua,”’ the broad leaf-base of 
the royal palm. 
Neither the Cubano nor the more active Canary Islander, 
who have settled here in considerable numbers, venture up 
into these rocky hills, consequently there are no trails and 
the guides usually proved are unsatisfactory, being content 
after a little climbing to sit on a rock and decree that further 
ascent is impossible. As prudence suggested the inadvisability 
of going alone, it was not until Christmas day, after securing the 
services of a big negro who laughingly remarked when I engaged 
him, “that he feared I could not go where he would,’ that the 
summit of Sierra de Mendoza was reached without securing, 
however, many varieties that had not already been collected at 
lower altitudes. The reward for the exertion, however, was the 
finding of a beautiful cactus of the genus Mammariella, which 
grew in clumps in crevices of the highest rocks. It is very 
similar if not identical with the species that is known to grow 
on the rocks about the Bay of Guantanamo, near the south- 
eastern end of the island. The Rio los Portales which cascades 
its way through the northwestern base of Sierra de Guane in a 
row gorge, which, to my mind, is the most picturesquely 
beautiful spot it has been my good fortune to see in Cuba, offers 
some variation to the vegetation of this formation in its spray- 
covered rocks and moist banks which I believe are not found 
elsewhere. Two characteristic plants were noted, however, a 
white-flowered aster on the rocks and a fern-like aquatic clinging 
to the rocks underneath the swiftest currents of the many little 
water falls. 
