4 
a short sketch of the region visited will render the present account 
more intelligible, and serve also to put on record some facts which 
may be valuable to future explorers. 
The three provinces mentioned above include all the eastern 
end of the island of Hispaniola, and judging from their sparsely 
settled condition they will be for some time a region of unbounded 
botanical possibilities. Samana, the most northeastern province 
of the republic, is mainly taken up with the bay of that name and 
a peninsula some thirty miles long and ten wide. The most im- 
portant towns are Sanchez, Samana, Sabana la Mar and El Valle. 
The first three are all on Samana bay, probably the finest harbor 
in the world; and Sanchez, the most important town in the 
province, is the terminal of the railroad to the Cibao. Seibo, 
which is larger than Samana and Macoris combined, stretches 
from the Atlantic to the Caribbean, and includes practically all 
the eastern coastline of the island. The chief towns are Seibo, 
Higtiey, Hato Mayor, and La Romana. The latter is small in 
population but important as the port of Seibo and Higiiey and 
the country tributary to these towns. Macoris, the smallest of 
the three provinces, is on the south coast, and contains most of 
the sugar-estates in the Dominican republic. Its largest and only 
important town is San Pedro de Macoris. 
Disregarding these political divisions, and speaking generally 
of the region visited, the northern half is hilly, while the southern 
part is practically level from Santo Domingo City to the east coast, 
a distance of about 100 miles. The mountainous region is nowhere 
higher than 1,800 feet, and the majority of the hills are much 
lower, so that the “ Gran Cordillera’ which includes the mag- 
nificent mountains of the Cibao and Haiti, here descends into a 
rather small mountain chain. There are a few isolated peaks off 
the main range, but they are essentially part of the great moun- 
tain chain which forms the backbone of eastern Cuba, Hispaniola 
and Porto Rico. 
The region to the south of the main range, and continuing out 
to the south coast may be roughly divided into two general forma- 
tions, — the wooded and the savannah formation. The formeris 
found almost exclusively along a belt some twenty miles wide, 
