CAPE SAN ANTONIO 171 



A fringe of the fan-leaf palm, Thrinax wend- 

 landiana, forms the outpost of a scrub forest just 

 back of the beach. The most notable tree of 

 this scrub is one of some twenty-five feet height 

 (Chrysophyllum olivceforme) and which on account 

 of the sheen upon its leaves is called the "Satin 

 Leaf." These are elliptical pointed, leathery, and 

 thick, and are of a bronze green above and a golden 

 brown beneath. It is related to the star-apple 

 and bears a small round fruit. 



The thick leathery leaves of so many of the 

 sand beach plants as well as of the trees that grow 

 near must be for some special reason related to 

 the intense glare and heat of such stations. 



In this wood from tree trunks and stems we 

 made a fine catch of a very small Cerion of an 

 undescribed species and took also many Cepolis 

 supertexta. 



There was little to interest us in the flotsam of 

 the beach. The barrenness of tropical beaches is 

 often a great disappointment to the northern visi- 

 tor who recalls childhood days upon the shell- 

 strewn beaches of his native land. One naturally 

 expects upon any sea beach, and more than ever 

 upon a tropical one, to find beautiful shells — and 



