

CHAPTER VI. 



The Forests of the Isthmus — Their primeval State — The Palms-** 3 

 Different Varieties — Their Characteristics — The Blossoms and the 

 Fruit — The various Products and their Uses — Indespensable to the 

 Natives. 



One of the first things that attracts the attention 

 of travellers in this country, and perhaps impresses 

 them more vividly than any other, is the deep 5 solemn 

 beauty of the forests. Until recently, the whole 

 length and breadth of the Isthmus, with but few and 

 slight exceptions, has remained the same gorgeous 

 " wild-wood" of huge trees and thickly interwoven 

 jungles that characterized it when first discovered 

 by the Spaniards ; and Nature, in all her gran- 

 deur, unbroken and undisturbed by the hand of man, 

 has reigned supreme throughout its whole extent* 

 But thanks to American progress, which seems 

 destined to leave no part of this continent without its 

 iron track, the woodman's ax has resounded already 

 through its wild savannas and deep vallies, borne 

 on by the strong arm of enduring enterprise ; and 

 it is to be hoped that its sound will never cease, until 

 the sun's light shall fall upon the soil that has so 

 long been shadowed over by these dense woods? 



