TORRE Y A '«;'^^ AL 



Vol. 25 No. 2 



March- April, 1925 



CLIMBINC; A MOGOTE. 



M. A. ClIRYSMCK 



Ever since reading Henderson's " (bruise of the Tomas Barrera" 

 I had wished for an opportunity to visit those remarkable mo- 

 gotes, or limestone buttes of western Cuba. Although Hender- 

 son's visit to Cuba was primarily for the purpose of collecting 

 land mollusks, the vegetation of the mogotes near Vifiales 

 proved so interesting that some of the conspicuous plants are 

 described in the book. 



Through the much appreciated support of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences I was able in August 1924 to undertake 

 a trip to western Cuba for the purpose of collecting cycads 

 especially the endemic Microcycas calocoma Miq., material of 

 which was needed for morphological work. This trip afforded 

 the desired opportunity of exploring a mogote, for Vifiales is 

 not far from the Microcycas country. 



After making San Diego de los Bafios my base for some days 

 I had the good fortune to be joined by Dr. Juan T. Roig, botan- 

 ist of the Cuba Experiment Station, and the success of the trip 

 here described was largely due to Dr. Roig's efficient guidance. 

 After settling in Pinar del Rio as our base we determined to 

 make an early attempt to ascend one of the large mogotes, and 

 so on the morning of the twenty-fourth of August we gathered 

 our portfolios and trowels, hired a fctijigo* and rattled off 

 toward Vifiales. I got the impression on this and other occa- 

 sions that whenever the driver of a fotingo realized that he had 

 an American on board he considered it his duty to drive faster 

 than any other auto on the road. At any rate we soon left 

 Pinar far behind on the level country to the south, and began 

 to cross the first of the irregular ridges, which in contrast to the 

 mountains near Vifiales are siliceous in composition and have 

 an undulating contour — the so-called lomas. As the ascent be- 

 came steeper and the road twisted right and left we gained fine 

 views of the south side of the island. The vegetation of the 

 rounded slopes of the lomas is rather monotonous, consisting 

 chiefly of Pinus canhaea Morelet, with occasional patches of 



* Cuban name for a Ford car. 



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