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altitude of 230 feet, although they did not seem to us to be over 
100 feet high. On landing we found that the beach presented 
the usual sea-coast plants, back of which were a few large trees 
and a great number of silvery-leaved fan-palms, called by the 
Cubans “mira guana.” This is a species of Coccothrinax and its 
leaves are used for thatching. The hills were very rocky with little 
and often no soil, but still supporting a dense growth of shrubs and 
a few small trees. On the other side, however, the hills were less 
steep, less stony, often quite fertile and supported some good 
sized trees mostly of the same species as those seen in smaller form 
on the seaward slope. We camped here in the net-house of a | 
fisherman and the experiences with heavy rains, high winds and 
biting insects was such that it was a pleasure to embark at day- 
break on October 12 for Cayo Paloma, the largest and outermost 
of a group of small cays situated between Cayo Romano and the 
end of Cayo Cruz 
This cay is about a mile long and half as wide, and consists of 
a limestone hill, scarcely 100 feet high, covered with a low forest 
growth, some of the trees, however, attaining large size. Our 
stay of a day and a night on this beautiful island was a constant 
battle with insects. Since the boatman had refused to anchor 
the boat off shore for sleeping purposes, our camp was located 
upon the land, and as the collections were not drying well in spite 
of their being transferred to dryers that had been passed over our 
charcoal stove, I concluded it was best to return to headquarters 
early in the morning of October 13. In returning we were 
caught in several severe squalls before reaching Cayo Romano, 
after which, however, we had good weather and a stiff wind from 
the west. Keeping on the seaward side of Cayo Guajaba, a good 
view of its entire outer coast was had, much of which is white 
sandy beach fringed with Coccothrinax, among which was noted 
one large tree of the beefwood, Casuarina equisetifolia, called 
‘‘pino” by the sailors, and thus accounting for the statement 
made to me last winter that “pine trees grew on Guajaba.” 
Much of this outer coast, however, is composed of mangrove 
swamp broken up by shallow lagoons. A small hill near the 
northwestern corner and a range of low hills passing through 
