Calvert : Odonata of the Neotropical Region. 75 



11 Don Diego: Plantation on the coast at the mouth of the river 

 Don Diego, five miles east of the Buritaca, and with similar surface 

 and vegetation " [i. e. , "The mountain forest here" — at Buritaca 

 — "comes down bodily to the coast, where there are sand-beaches 

 and mangrove-swamps ; the country is low and damp. There are 

 small tracts of open grass land near the river mouth "J . 



" Minca : Plantation on the river Gaira, twelve miles southeast of 

 Santa Marta, at the lower border of the main mountain forest, which 

 here adjoins dry forest and open grass lands. Elevation 2,000 feet. 



" Onaca : Plantation, eighteen miles E.S.E. of Santa Marta, at the 

 lower border of the main mountain forest, which here adjoins the open 

 lands. Elevation 2,000 feet. 



" Valparaiso : Plantation near the head of the river Gaira, twenty 

 miles southeast of Santa Marta, 4,500 feet. Extensive clearings in the 

 mountain forest. Las Purtidas is a locality near it at 3,500 feet." 



Mr. Smith emphasizes the difference between mountain forest and 

 dry forest, believing the difference to be interesting and significant. 

 " The true mountain forest is a matted growth of trees and vines with 

 numerous epiphytes and ferns ; very few trees shed their leaves at 

 stated seasons, and the forest is damp and verdant throughout the year. 

 In the dry forests, on the contrary, nearly all the trees and vines are 

 leafless during the latter part of the dry season, February to May ; the 

 few peculiar ferns die down to the roots. Grasses and herbs are 

 abundant wherever the ground is not too shady, but they wither dur- 

 ing the dry months. The distinction of plant species is almost com- 

 plete, and is all the more remarkable because the two kinds of forest 

 exist side by side." " I have been thus explicit in describing the two 

 kinds of forest because they exist in all parts of tropical America. . . . 

 The ' pampa ' [dry forest] of the Santa Marta district is the ' campo ' 

 and ' coatingo ' of Brazil, and the scrubby growth of lower hills in the 

 West Indies ; a modified form is the ' chapparal ' of Mexico. Every- 

 where the plants are different from those of the swamp forest ; gener- 

 ally the trees are lower, often small and gnarled and sometimes scat- 

 tered ; and everywhere they shed their leaves during the dry season. 

 The difference does not always correspond to a difference of soil or 

 situation ; the two kinds of forest may adjoin each other on level 

 ground or on a mountain side, on land equally dry or humid. 



" It is impossible to avoid the impression that the dry forest is an 

 old, stunted, and worn out vegetation, tending to extinction, while 



