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Querciis virginiana Mill. The soil is poor and quite resembles 

 that on which I had found specimens of Zamia Kickxit Miq. 

 at San Diego de los Baiios. After spending a half-hour in cross- 

 ing the ridges one comes suddenly to the rim of an extensive 

 flat valley, and a beautiful panorama lies spread out before him. 

 In this valley lies the village of Vifiales, and from the surround- 

 ing tobacco fields arise the mogotes, large and small, which are 

 readily distinguished from the lomas by their steep sides, light 

 color and irregular contours. Some of the mogotes such as the 

 one pierced by the road at "Km 14" are not larger than a 

 good-sized church, but these are mere outliers to the chain called 

 Sierra de los Organos, or Organ Mountains, which form the re- 

 mains of a limestone ridge extending for many miles at a short 

 distance north of the last siliceous ridge. After descending into 

 the village of Vinales we were courteously entertained at the 

 home of Sefior Francisco Azcuy, who had previously acted as 

 guide for Dr. Roig, and who intimately knows the intricate trails 

 up the mogotes, through long experience in climbing them in 

 search of Bombax emargtnata, a tree used as a source of fibre. 

 After "breakfast" we secured the services of a second guide, and 

 the four of us walked across about a mile of the plain country 

 which is regarded as choice tobacco land and also produces a 

 fine quality of taro. Unexpected and interesting plants were 

 met at every turn, including the big Euphorbia lactea used for 

 hedges, the showy orange Crotalaria retusa L., and a clump of 

 Opuntia stricta Haw. A nearly ripe fruit of this plant was cut 

 open by one of the guides, displaying the magenta flesh in which 

 the seeds are imbedded. Presently we came to the foot of Mogote 

 de la Bandera ("flag-hill"), so called because in the great nat- 

 ional days there was a man who used to post a flag on top of it. 

 As soon as one glances across the face of a mogote ne realizes 

 that here is represented a flora of great richness and variety. 

 With our expectations at high pitch and with our fingers itching 

 to get hold of one of the big Pitcairnias which we saw reposing 

 in a crevice safely out of leach, we began to examine an acces- 

 sible part of the cliff base. Dr. Roig was soon rewarded by lo- 

 cating a flowering specimen of the Peperomia which had been 

 named after him when only the leaves were known — a peculiar 

 little trailing plant with leaves a centimeter wide and shaped 

 like those chocolate covered tablets which I took along for sea- 



