FORESTS OP PORTO RICO. 21 



FORESTED CONDITION AND DISTRIBUTION. 



There can be little doubt that Porto Rico was at one time forested 

 fiom the shores of the Atlantic to the Caribbean, from the Virgin 

 Pa 5sage to Mona.^ Historians, while in general silent as to the 

 extent and character of the forests on the island, have in the aggre- 

 gate left a considerable collection of data concerning the subject,^ 

 sufficient it would seem, together with present-day indications, to 

 bear out the contention of a once completely forested Porto Rico. 



One has but to turn to the neighboring islands of the Greater 

 Antilles, which are closely related both geologically and botanically, 

 if further corroboration of Porto Rico's original forested condition is 

 required. This close relationship and similarity even down to such 

 details as common names is strikingly brought out by a comparison 

 of the description by Fernow and Taylor ^ of the Sierra Maestra in 

 Cuba, by Woodward,^ of the Santo Domingo forests, and by Gifford,^ 



office. Slight departures only are necessary to make allowance in certain cases for the influence of the 

 limestone soils. Altitudinal differences are so slight as to have comparatively little effect. 



In the descriptions local names, wherever possible, have been adhered to, and following each such 

 name is a number in parentheses, thus, guaraguao (74), which number refers to the specific description 

 in Appendix I, "The Trees of Porto Rico." 



Whenever desirable, a brief paragraph in small priut concerning the chief featm'es of the same or a 

 closely related formation in other parts of the Tropics follows the description of the local Porto Rican 

 formation. Thus it is hoped that interest in the forest will be heightened through comparison and that 

 the way may be opened for the judicious selection of new species to be introduced into Porto Rico. 



1 The following from a letter from Mr. Alex. Wetmore, assistant biologist, Bureau of the Biological Survey, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, who recently completed an exhaustive study of the bird life of the island, 

 is of considerable interest in this connection: " On examining the endemic species of Porto Rican birds, 

 I find that with one or two exceptions they are forest-inliabiting forms, pointing thus to a very extensive 

 forest area on the island. The forms as differentiated here must have inhabited such an area during the 

 period of evolution, and species with a preference for open savannas may have come in later, or may have 

 been very few in number until within historical times. The extensive area of moist deciduous and tropical 

 rain forests shown by you on the forest-distribution map, all point to this hypothesis." 



2 Oviedo, vsriting of the early years of 1500 concerning animals, trees, and the like ia Porto Rico, stated 

 that they did not differ from those already described in the "Isla Espanola." The North American and 

 West Indian Gazetteer (1778) states that "the sides of the hills are covered with trees of various kinds, 

 proper for building ships and other useful purposes." Fray Inigo (1788), besides mentioning the superior 

 and much greater variety of timber trees in the uplands, also states that many trees are found in the southern 

 part of the island as well, although conditions there were much more arid and less fertile than on the north 

 coast. In the account of the capture of San Juan by the Earl of Cumberland (1597), the small island on 

 which San Juan is situated is described as "for the most woods." Continumg, the Luquillo region and 

 the interior generally are described as follows: "The valleys are much wooded but ia very many places 

 interlaced with goodly large Playnes and spacious Lawnes. The woods are not only underlings but 

 timber trees of goodly tallnesse and stature, fit for the buUduig of ships and of every part of them." Accord- 

 ing to Herrera, (English translation, 1726), "The Island * * * has much good pasture for cattle, 

 which decreases, by reason of the great number of trees tncreasmg * * * go that the Island is over- 

 grown with Woods." Flmter (1834), speaking of the surroundings of Guayama, says that 5 or 6 years 

 previously it v/as merely "an immense tract of woodland." He also says: "The forests which cover the 

 motintalns of Porto Rico are filled with timber of the best quality for the construction of ships and houses. 

 In some parts of the coast from the very improvident manner in which wood has been cut down and burned 

 for charcoal and much left to rot on the ground, timber is getting scarce; but in the interior there is yet 

 an abundance of superior timber." In 1830 timber to the value of S21,000 was exported through 

 the customhouses of this island, exclusively of what is shipped clandestinely." This work in particular 

 has numerous other references to the extent and luxuriance of the forest growth on the island. Finally 

 Barrett (1902) tells us that " more than half a century ago the Spanish planters of the island began clearing 

 the Ulterior districts for coffee and tobacco culture. There being no good roads and but little demand for 

 timber, the trees were burned where they fell; hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of lumber and 

 cabinet woods were thus destroyed." 



8 See Bibliography. 



